48 BLACKBIRD. 



on the inside with mud, and lined with finer parts of the other materials 

 and grass; it is sometimes most admirably hidden in a hollow in a bank, 

 so as almost to baffle detection. It is at times placed on the top of a 

 fence or the summit of a wall. The same situation is occasionally resorted 

 to from year to year. N. Kowe, Esq., of Worcester College, Oxford, 

 writes me word of a pair of Blackbirds which built their nest in the 

 same spot in a laurel tree that had been previously tenanted the same 

 year by a pair of Greenfinches, who in their turn had succeeded a pair 

 of Thrushes. The female sits for thirteen days. 



The eggs are commonly five in number, sometimes four, and sometimes, 

 though but rarely, six; they are of a dull light blue or greenish brown 

 colour, mottled and spotted with pale reddish brown, the markings 

 being closer at the larger end, where they sometimes form an obscure 

 ring. Mr. Hewitson, in his ' Coloured Illustrations of the Eggs of 

 British Birds/ figures one elegantly covered over at the larger end with 

 minute reddish brown specks, and likewise, but less thickly, over the 

 remainder the green shewing through; and a second curiously marbled 

 with irregular dashes and specks of reddish brown over the green 

 colour. Another variety is similar to the last, except that the ground 

 colour is lighter, and the spots smaller. Another, in his possession, 

 clear spotless light blue, with the whole of the larger end suffused 

 with reddish brown. J. B. Ellman, Esq., of Battel, relates in the 

 'Zoologist/ page 2180, that he had an egg in which the spots were 

 at the smaller end. Some of the eggs are much larger than others } 

 and they also vary much in colour and markings, as also in shape, some 

 being much more round, and others much more oval, than others: in 

 some instances the smaller end is rounded and obtuse. 



One is grounded with light green, marked with small faint pale 

 yellowish red streak-like spots all over. 



A second is of a dark dull brownish green, spotted with yellowish 

 red spots. 



A third is green, with rather large brown spots all over. 



A fourth is of a pale green. 



A fifth is of a greyish white, with yellowish marbled indistinct spots 

 all over. 



A sixth is grounded with grey, mottled all over with green. 



A seventh is of a dull bluish white, with a few light yellowish brown 

 spots and dots. 



James Dalton, Esq., of Worcester College, Oxford, has forwarded me 

 two good varieties, one of very small size, and the other light clear 

 greenish blue, like a Starling's. 



