208 BRITISH BIRDS' NESTS. 



vent white ; under tail-coverts pale rust colour. 

 Legs and toes dull fleshy pink ; claws black. 



The female has the crest much shorter, is less 

 bright in her colour, has whitish mark in black 

 part of breast, and has a hoarser note. 



Situation and Locality. On the ground in rough 

 pasture-land, marshes, fallow fields, and other suit- 

 able places throughout the British Isles. Although 

 considerable flocks may be seen up and down the 

 country in the winter time, there can be little doubt 

 but that the species is diminishing in numbers 

 owing to the collection of its eggs for table use. 

 During the last few years I have seen old birds 

 flocked in June, proving that from one cause or 

 another they have been unable to rear young ones 

 for that season. 



Materials. A few bits of dry grass, rushes, or 

 moss, used as a lining to the depression in which 

 the eggs are laid. 



Eggs. Four, although five have been reported. 

 The latter number must be very rare, for I have 

 found a great many nests, but never once saw 

 more than four ; and I know several gamekeepers 

 who collect eggs for table use every spring, and 

 they do not recollect ever meeting with a nest 

 containing more, although my friend Mr. Bentham, 

 of Oxted, found a nest near Redhill a year or two 

 ago with five eggs in it. I have on several 

 occasions found birds sitting hard upon only three 

 eggs, and it is said that in such cases they frequently 

 add a small stone or hard clod of earth to fill up 

 the nest. Dirty olive-green, blotched and spotted 

 all over with blackish-brown. Sometimes the 

 ground-colour is light buff or bufnsh-brown, of 

 various shades. The markings are generally most 



