S3 EGGS AND EGG-COLLECTING. 



third time, before the first have flown. They are white 

 and unspotted. She makes a very slight nest of sticks, 

 hay, and sometimes of her own cast-off feathers. She 

 select barns, old ruins, hollow trees, and crevices of rocks, 

 overshadowed by ivy or creeping plants. 



THE CROSS-BILL. 



THIS bird lays four or five eggs of a white colour, tinged 

 with pale blue, resembling the colour of skim-milk, and 

 speckled with red, but only very sparingly. Her nest is 

 made of twigs, grass, and sometimes lined with a few 

 long hairs. She builds mostly among the branches of 

 the Scotch fir, the nest being generally close to the boll 

 or stem. 



THE WOODLAKK. 



UNLIKE its congener, the Skylark, this bird is limited 

 to certain localities in our islands. Whilst it is fairly 

 abundant in some districts, it is seldom or never seen in 

 others. It is highly esteemed as a song-bird, and conse- 

 quently suffers at the hands of professional bird-catchers, 

 especially as its young begin to carol at an early period of 

 their existence. Its nest is situated on the ground, usually 

 well concealed beneath a tuft of grass or low plant, and 

 is composed of grass, bents, moss, and hairs, the coarser 

 material used on the outside and the finer to line the 

 interior. The eggs are four or five in number, of a lighter 

 ground colour than the Skylark's eggs, thickly speckled 

 with reddish-brown, the spots sometimes, but rarely, 

 forming a zone at the larger end. 



