DUNNOCK. 61 



built and reared their young in the aviary of Mr. 

 Thomas Walker, of Rosebank, Tunbridge Wells. 



It is deep and well rounded, and from four and 

 a half to five inches in diameter on the outside, and 

 nearly two inches deep. It is made of small twigs 

 and grass, lined with moss, and then with hair, grass, 

 wool, or down, or any appropriate substances at hand. 



W. Bridger, Esq., has forwarded me a specimen. 



The eggs, which are sometimes seen so early as 

 the beginning of April, are four or five, rarely six, 

 though sometimes it is said, seven, in number, and of 

 a very elegant greenish-blue colour, with a rather 

 glossy surface. Archibald Hepburn, Esq., records in 

 the ' Zoologist,' page 434, his having seen an egg of 

 this species, which was thrown out of the nest by the 

 parents, and was of a bluish white colour, mottled 

 and speckled with light brown; it was much rounder 

 than the usual shape, and was empty inside. 



Incubation lasts eleven days, and two broods are 

 often reared in the year; preparations for one being 

 made about the middle of March, and for the latter, 

 at the beginning of May: three are sometimes hatched. 

 Meyer, in his 'British Birds,' mentions his having seen 

 a nest on the 2ist. of January, and that he found one 

 with a newly-laid egg in it on the 22nd. of July. The 

 same situation is frequently resorted to from year to 

 year. 



