44 BRITISH BIRDS' NESTS. 



streak in the centre of each feather. Wing-quills 

 black, spotted and marked with light brown on the 

 inner webs. Lower back and rump white, marked 

 by a few dusky spots. Upper tail-coverts white, 

 marked with dark brown ; tail-feathers barred with 

 dull yellowish- white and dark brown. Chin white ; 

 throat and upper part of breast very pale brown, 

 marked with dark brown streaks ; lower part of 

 breast, belly, vent, and under tail-coverts white, 

 spotted on the two first, with blackish-brown, and 

 a dusky streak or two on the latter. Legs long, 

 and, like the toes, bluish-grey in colour. 



The female is similar in plumage, but is larger, 

 sometimes even to the extent of five inches in 

 length. 



Situation and Locality. On the ground amongst 

 long, coarse grass, tufts of rushes and heath ; some- 

 times quite exposed on bare ground. On rough, 

 undrained pasture land, moors, and uplands in the 

 West and North of England, Wales, Scotland, and 

 Ireland. Our illustration is from a photograph 

 taken on the Westmoreland Hills, where these birds 

 are very common. We found a couple of nests 

 within a few yards of each other, the one containing 

 two, and the other three eggs ; and the specimen 

 figuring on the page opposite was only just over 

 the wall in an adjoining pasture. 



Materials. A few short bits of dead rushes, 

 withered grass, or dead leaves, placed in some small 

 declivity ; sometimes nothing whatever. 



Eggs. - - Four, sometimes only three, varying 

 from olive-green to brownish-buff in ground colour, 

 spotted and blotched with dark green and blackish- 

 brown. Size about 2'65 by 1/85 in. 



Time. April, May, and beginning of Jane 

 sometimes. 



