69 



WHINCHAT. 



GRASSCHAT. FURZECHAT. 



PLATE CXIII. 



Sylvia rubetra, 

 3tlotacilla rubetra, 

 Saxicola rubetra, 

 Rubefra major, 

 (Enanthe secunda, 



PENNAKT. 



MONTAGU. BEWICK. 

 FLEwnm. SELBT. 

 BBISSON. 

 EAT. 



THE nest is placed in the lower part of a gorse bush, a few inches 

 above the ground, where the thorns and stalks are dying off, so that 

 the materials of the nest assimilate in appearance to the situation in 

 which it is placed, and it is thns the rather screened from observation. 

 More frequently it is placed in the grass at the foot of it, and has 

 been known in a hedge adjoining a road. Where there are no gorse 

 bushes, it is placed among rough grass in a pasture field, or in a 

 meadow. Henry Stowe, Esq., of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, took 

 one near Brackley, in Northamptonshire, built so near the edge of a 

 pond that the nest was quite wet. It is loosely built of stalks of grass 

 and moss, and is lined with finer portions of the former; a layer of 

 wool has been known between the two, and occasionally some hair 

 or leaves : it measures six inches across, and two and a half internally. 

 It is very carefully concealed, and extremely difficult to find; the bird 

 approaching it stealthily by a labyrinthine track. 



The eggs are of a glossy bluish green colour, with some minute 

 specks, and sometimes, though very rarely, of dull reddish brown; they 

 are five or six in number, usually the latter, very rarely seven. 



One is grounded with fine deep greenish blue. 



A second is of a paler bluish green. 



A third sort is very dull greenish blue, with a few reddish spots. 



