84 FIELD-STUDIES OF RARER BIRDS 



after year, and although there exists at least oiie 

 other alternative generally close at hand this is 

 normally only called into play when the favourite 

 domicile has been badly tampered with. 



The eggs are from three to six and even seven 

 in number, but clutches of four and five are most 

 frequent. In ground-colour they range from pale 

 creamy or yellowish -white to dirty -white with a 

 faint tinge of green, whilst the blotches, spots, and 

 streaks are browns of different shades, fawn, and 

 grey ; on some specimens a few nearly black 

 marks or lines occur. One type is zoned at either 

 end, another is evenly marked over its entire sur- 

 face, a third is scantily but boldly blotched, while 

 a fourth is curiously streaked and lined, being 

 altogether not unlike an impossible Nightjar's 

 egg. On some few examples the grey underlying 

 markings predominate, and, as a rule, eggs in a 

 "set" are not all of one type. Incubation, 

 chiefly the duty of the female, lasts, for one egg, 

 seventeen or eighteen days, for the Chough fre- 

 quently sits on its first egg. The Chough is nearly 

 always a close, and sometimes an abnormally 

 close, sitter, especially in really turbulent weather. 

 Occasionally, indeed, one will remain on her nest, 

 or, if there is enough space, behind it, as you s\\ay 

 on the rope in front of the hole : quite often may 

 a gun be discharged once at any rate without 

 inducing the sitting bird to quit. More frequently, 

 however, a smart hand-clap particularly from a 



