BIRDS 



457 



Fig. 976. Nest of Grey Wagtail (Motacilla melanope] 



is regularly the case with the Little Grebe or Dabchick (Podicipes 

 fluviatilis\ which employs similar materials. The White Swan 

 (Cygnus olor) frequently constructs a large floating nest of sticks 

 and straw, though it 

 often prefers an islet, 

 when one is available. 

 The former state of 

 things is illustrated by 

 fig. 975, taken at Dud- 

 dingstone Loch, near 

 Edinburgh, and show- 

 ing building operations 

 in progress. 



The cup-shaped nests 

 of many common species 

 built in various situa- 

 tions near the ground are more carefully finished than the 

 domestic arrangements so far described. That of a Grey Wagtail 

 {Motacilla melanope], shown in fig. 976, was built in a wall on the 

 Pentlands. On this species Dixon (in Among the Birds in 

 Northern Shires] makes the fol- 

 lowing remarks: "Not every wan- 

 derer by the water-side is fortunate 

 enough to get a peep at this bird's 

 domestic arrangements. It has, 

 fortunately perhaps, a happy way 

 of concealing its nest under some 

 large stone or overhanging rock, 

 not necessarily in a secluded spot, 

 but often close by the wayside, 

 where the very audacity of the 

 selection proves a source of safety. 

 A scrappy little nest it is, dry grass 

 and roots and such like litter thrown 

 carelessly together, and lined with hair, or more rarely a few 

 feathers; artless, yet possessing a rustic beauty if wanting that 

 elaborate finish of more painstaking nest-builders. The five or 

 six eggs are as unassuming as the nest that holds them, grayish- 

 white freckled with brown, and perhaps with here and there a 

 scratch of darker hue. . . . This pretty wagtail still further endears 



Fig. 977. Nest of Common Thrush (Turdzts 

 tmisicus] 



VOL. III. 



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