BRITISH BIRDS' NESTS. 63 



side are margined. Chin pale brown ; throat and 

 upper breast light purplish-red, fading into grey. 

 The sides of the neck are marked with a patch 

 of black, each feather of which is tipped with 

 white. Belly, vent, and under tail-coverts white. 

 Under-side of tail-feathers black, deeply tipped with 

 white, except two centre ones, which are of a 

 uniform dusky brown. 



The female is rather smaller in size, lacks the 

 black feathers tipped with white on the sides of 

 the neck, and is duller and less distinctive in her 

 coloration. 



Situation and Locality. In tall, rough hedges, 

 whitethorn and holly bushes ; in woods, plantations, 

 copses, and spinneys. Common in the Southern, 

 Midland, and Eastern Counties ; scarcer in the 

 West and North; not met with as a breeder in 

 Scotland, and only sparingly in Ireland. Our illus- 

 tration is from a photograph taken in Surrey. I 

 have found five or six nests in little more than a 

 couple of acres of wood. The nest is placed at a 

 height of from four or five to twenty feet. 



Materials. Sticks and twigs carelessly made 

 into a slight platform, through which the eggs 

 may invariably be seen from beneath. I remember 

 once finding one amongst some tall ash saplings, 

 that was so slightly constructed with birch twigs 

 as to endanger the eggs slipping through it. I 

 have, however, on the other hand, a nest before 

 me as I write which is a thick and bulky platform 

 made entirely of roots of weeds collected from an 

 adjoining ploughed field. 



Eggs. Two, creamy-white, glossy, oval, and 

 unspotted. Size about 1-18 by '90 in. 



Time. May, June, July, and August. 



Remarks. Migratory, arriving in April and May, 



