280 THE NATURAL HISTORY 



justified my doing so. It is quite fresh in my memory 

 as I write a large mass exactly resembling a com- 

 plete double nest, and each portion finished off ap- 

 parently with equal care, as if the future progenitors 

 had inaugurated their matrimonial career with a miff, 

 and followed it up with a mutual determination to use 

 separate beds. But on closer examination, I found 

 that one division only of this example of a new archi- 

 tectural design was a true nest, its counterpart con- 

 sisting of a somewhat compact mass of the usual 

 building materials without aperture or cavity. This 

 discovery led me from my first impression to the 

 supposition that the building instinct of the architects 

 had not been quite satisfied by the erection of the true 

 edifice, or that the anomaly was simply the work of a 

 'prentice han'. What I have now to add, will, I 

 think, make this curiosity more striking. In the same 

 hedgerow, and not many yards from the same bush 

 in which this double nest was found, I last spring met 

 with another Bottle Tit's nest, with its supplement, 

 exactly similar to the one pf the previous season, and 

 that also contained white eggs ! " We may add to 

 this extract, that a third nest of the bottle tit, of pre- 

 cisely the same composite character as the two here 

 alluded to, and with white eggs, has since then been 

 found in the same locality. 



The curiously unmusical and harsh notes of the 

 Corn Bunting (Embcriza Miliaria), a plain coloured, 

 common bird, about the size of the skylark, may be 

 heard any day in spring in open pastures and corn- 

 fields, where also its nest is found on the ground. 

 The Yellow Bunting (Emberiza Citrinella) is equally 

 common ; and as it is a more gaily-coloured bird than 

 the last, it is perhaps more generally noticed. Its 

 song is also more pleasing than that of the corn 

 bunting, but at best it is a somewhat doleful ditty. 

 The Cirl Bunting {Emberiza Cirlus) is not nearly so 

 numerous as the last species, or the next; but we have 



