376 BRITISH BIRDS' NESTS. 



dark bluish-grey ; breast and belly buffish - white ; 

 sides pale yellowish-brown, streaked with a darker 

 tinge of the same colour ; vent and under tail- 

 coverts pale tawny - brown ; legs and toes dark 

 orange-brown ; claws black. 



The female is duller in plumage, with more mark- 

 ings on the head and sides, and is a trifle smaller. 



Situation and Locality. Hawthorn hedges are 

 favourite situations ; the nest may, however, be 

 found in all kinds of low bushes, such as furze, 

 gooseberry, briars, brambles, and nettles. On one 

 occasion I met with three nests, containing eggs, 

 close together amongst the black-currant bushes of 

 a small garden in Westmorland ; and remember 

 on another finding one quite on the ground in 

 Yorkshire. Found pretty generally throughout the 

 United Kingdom, with the exception, perhaps, of 

 the islands lying to the north, and some of the 

 smallest and bleakest of those to the west of 

 Scotland. 



Materials. Slender twigs (sparingly used and 

 sometimes entirely absent), roots, moss, and dry 

 grass, with an inner lining of wool, hair, and feathers. 

 I have on several occasions seen nests made entirely 

 of moss and cowhair. Many individuals of this 

 species have a habit of covering their eggs when 

 they leave them before commencing to sit. In July, 

 1905, I found a Cuckoo's egg covered over in a 

 Hedge Sparrow's nest which contained no other eggs. 



Egg 8 - Four to six, of a beautiful unmarked tur- 

 quoise-blue. Size about .77 by .6 in. (See Plate V.) 



Time. March, April, May, and June, sometimes 

 as late even as July. 



Remarks. Resident. Notes : a low plaintive 

 cheep-cheep , and a cheerful, though not long sus- 



