136 BRITISH BIRDS' NESTS. 



greyish-brown on the outer, and tipped with white ; 

 chin, throat, and breast light grey ; belly, vent, 

 under tail-coverts, and under side of tail-quills, 

 white. Sides, flanks, and thighs barred with two 



GREY-LAG GOOSE'S NEST. 

 (Eggs covered with down.) 



shades of grey ; legs, toes, and webs flesh colour ; 

 claws black. 



The female is smaller in size than the male. 



Situation and Locality. On the ground amongst 

 tall rank grass, heather, rushes or osiers in lonely 

 swamps and moorland bogs of Ross, Sutherland, 

 Caithness, and the Outer and Inner Hebrides ; also 

 in a semi-domesticated state at Castle Coole, in 

 Ireland, where the birds are only subject to a 

 limited local movement. The bird appears to be 

 partial to small islands, whereon I have seen at 

 least half a dozen nests in a single day. 



Materials^ leather, dried flags, rushes, leaves, 

 and grass with an inner lining of feathers and down 

 from the breast of the female. 



