164 OUR SUMMER MIGRANTS. 



on the southern coast, Hampshire. He makes 

 no mention of its occurrence in Wales, neither 

 does Mr. A. G. More in his essay above men- 

 tioned. During the summer of 1871, however, 

 several letters appeared in the natural history 

 columns of " The Field," communicating the 

 fact of its nesting in Breconshire, Denbighshire, 

 and Merionethshire. 1 The sites selected for the 

 nests are usually holes in walls, ruins, and pol- 

 lard trees, and the nest itself is composed of 

 roots, grass, strips of inside bark and horsehair. 

 The eggs, five or six in number, are of a very 

 pale blue colour, much paler, smaller, and rounder 

 than those of the hedge sparrow. A correspon- 

 dent who has taken several nests of this bird 

 states that he never found one containing 

 feathers ; but I think I have seen one lined 

 with feathers which had been taken out of an 

 old birch tree in Lapland by the late Mr. H. 

 Wheelwright. In this lamented naturalist's en- 

 tertaining book, "A Spring and Summer in 



1 See "The Field" for May 27th, June 8th, and June 

 24th, 1871. 



