88 BRITISH BIRDS' NESTS. 



it breeds in either Scotland or Ireland. I have 

 seen odd specimens in the Outer Hebrides. Our 

 illustration is from a photograph taken in Surrey, 

 where I have found five or six nests in little more 

 than a couple of acres of wood. The flimsy 

 structure is placed at a height varying from four or 

 five to twenty feet from the ground. I have twice 

 found the bird sitting on a Blackbird's nest, the 

 interior of which she had filled up with dead bits 

 of slender birch twigs. 



Materials. Sticks and twigs carelessly made 

 into a slight platform, through which the eggs may 

 invariably be seen from beneath. I remember 

 once finding one, amongst some tall ash saplings, 

 that was so slightly constructed with birch twigs 

 as to endanger the eggs slipping through it. I have, 

 however, on the other hand, seen specimens con- 

 sisting of a thick and bulky platform made en- 

 tirely of roots of weeds collected from an adjoining 

 ploughed field. 



Egg 8 - Two, creamy-white, glossy, oval, and 

 unspotted. Size about 1.18 by .90 in. 



Time. May, June, July, and August. 



Remarks. Migratory, arriving in April and May, 

 and departing in September and later. Notes : 

 tur-tur, repeated rapidly. They are not unfre- 

 quently mistaken for the croaking of a frog by 

 the uninitiated, as I have once or twice discovered 

 by overhearing conversations whilst I was in 

 hiding close to road sides. Local and other 

 names : Wrekin Dove, Ring-necked Turtle, Common 

 Turtle. Sits pretty closely when incubation has 

 advanced, and when disturbed flies off without 

 demonstration. 



