90 BRITISH BIRDS, WITH THEIR NESTS AND EGGS. 



a brick-earth cutting at Kemsley, near Sheppy. Nidification lasts from May to 

 August, nests being most abundant in the latter half of May. 



The nest is usually bag-shaped, consisting of a mere thick lining to the hole 

 in which it is situated ; the top being widely open, so that the light generally 

 falls directly upon the eggs ; the materials are similar to those used by the 

 Common Sparrow straw, hay, and a mass of poultry-feathers. The eggs number 

 from four to six ; they are rather smaller than those of the House-Sparrow, and 

 vary nearly as much (perhaps quite as much, if one could obtain a sufficient series 

 to decide the point) ; I have taken them greenish-white, with scarcely perceptible 

 grey speckling ; greenish- white, speckled with grey, spotted with two shades of 

 sepia, sometimes with the heaviest markings in a subterminal zone ; somewhat 

 greyer, mottled and streaked with grey (not unlike an egg of the Pied Wagtail) ; 

 greyish-white, thickly mottled and blotched with grey, most densely at the larger 

 end, also with one or two blackish dots (not unlike a Titlark's egg) ; dull white, 

 heavily blotched and streaked with vandyke-brown in two shades, and with small 

 grey shell-spots ; similar, but so densely streaked and splashed with brown as 

 almost to hide the ground-colour ; lastly rufous-brown, speckled and streaked, 

 especially at the larger end, with darker brown (resembling a reddish variety of 

 the Tree- Pipit). The darker and more ruddy eggs are most characteristic of the 

 species ; but most of those which I obtained from Kentish nests were of the lighter 

 varieties, though the eggs in one clutch sometimes exhibit considerable modification 

 in this respect. It is possible that the colouring of the eggs may have a local 

 significance, inasmuch as Lord Lilford's experience in Northamptonshire led him 

 to the conclusion that the ground-colour, as a rule, was lighter than in eggs of 

 the House-Sparrow ; whilst those which I obtained in Norfolk were usually remark- 

 able for their darker ground-tint, although exceptions did occur. 



It seems to me more probable that light in some way affects the colouring of 

 eggs ; inasmuch as, not only are most eggs which are laid in the dark pure white, 

 but all those which I have found in heavily shaded positions have been pale and 

 little marked, in comparison with those exposed to direct daylight ; the lightest 

 eggs of the Tree-Sparrow which I obtained in Norfolk were those taken from the 

 horizontal branch of a willow, where the light only entered imperfectly over one 

 side of the nest-cavity ; those in the top of the stump, which were fully exposed 

 to the sky, were deepest in colouring ; the nest containing an almost white egg 

 was from the ruined lime-kiln, and was almost as much in the dark as if it had 

 been taken from a Sand-Martin's burrow. Lord Lilford's eggs being taken from 

 holes in full-sized trees, and not from the tops of pollards, were probably but little 

 exposed to light. 



