14 Mr, LiGHtFOoT's Account of 



fyfpfended or faftened on,- like a hammock, between three -or 

 four fl'alks of reeds, below the panicles of -flowers, in fueh a 

 manner that the ^flalks run • through the fides of the nefts' stt 

 nearly equal dlftances ; or,' to fpeak more properly,^ the i^'efl^ 

 Jb tied -on to the rfeeds with^^i?^(^^r^j-,'sn-dfometiiiaes {as beiftg^ 

 mSfe eligible' when'' ?t -can be had) eVeil' with thread iM\di pack-'^- 

 /j6rf^<3',''emiil3ting'thfe work of a fempftrefs, as was the cafe of" 

 the nelt exhibited in the drawing. The bird, however, though 

 generally,' does ilot always confine her building to the fupport 

 df reeds; fometimes flie fixes it on to the branches of thc^ 

 lVater^dock\ and, in one inftance only (that here delineated), 

 it was found faftened to the trlfurcated branch of a SyrtngOt 

 bufh, or Philadelphia^ growing in a garden hedge by the river ' 

 fide.' 



She lays commt)nly four eggs'; the ground colour a dirty 

 white, ftained all over with dull olive-coloured fpots, but 

 chiefly at the greater end, where are generally ittn two or 

 three fmall irregular black fcratchcs ; but thefe are fometimes 

 fcarcely viflble. 



I muft not omit, that both "the neft and eggs which I have 



no^ defcribed, whether defigned for the fame or not, are well 



exprefled by Sepp, in the work above cited, under the article 



iJurdus Calamoxenus, or Rietvhick, p. gj.-, but as the bird there 



reprefented is evidently the Motacilla Sylvia, Lin. or common 



White-throat (which is known to make a very different nefl), I 



am inclined to believe, that the author, by miflake, placed a 



bird and nefl in the fame plate which do not belong to each 



other. 



J have reafon to think, that the bird I have been charac- 



.teriz.iiig is a bird of migration ; for the inhabitants on the iides 



2 of 



