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which at dusk its eerie cry of " Whoo-whoo" may be beard. The 

 species varies a good deal in colour, but is generally ashy grey above, 

 permeated with a tinge of reddish brown, each feather having a dark 

 centre, with zig-zag cross lines, giving a mottled look to the back. 

 The breast is ashy white, with black centres to each feather, which 

 are also barred and speckled. Unfortunately this bird has been 

 much persecuted by the game-keeper, and while it may occasionally 

 destroy a young rabbit- or even a young pheasant, there can be no 

 reasonable doubt that the species is of great service generally to 

 man, living as it does almost entirely on mice and rats, and for ihis 

 reason should be unfailingly preserved. The eggs are usually placed 

 in a hollow tree, but may be discovered in a variety of sites, such ai 

 an old nest of a rook or magpie, in out-houses, in the thick ivy 

 covering an old ruin, in rabbit burrows, or even on the ground in 

 fome dark well hidden spot, or in the broad fork of some old tree. 

 They are three or four in nnmber, pure white and round in shape. 



Pipit, Rock- This bird is close on seven inches in length, olive 

 brown in colour, mottled with dark brown centres to the feathers, and 

 with the under surface of a dull white. It is resident in Britain, and 

 widely distributed along the rocky coast lines. Inland it only 

 appears as a migrant. It is larger and darker in colour than the 

 more common meadow-pipit, which it otherwise closely resembles. 

 Its food consists of insects and the seeds of marine plants. Its 

 song is musical, though not strong. The nest is extremely difficult 

 to find, being usually placed in wild and inaccessible situations, 

 sometimes among rocky cliffs, often in a tuft of grass, but always 

 near the water. It is a slight structure built of dry grass, and 

 lined with hair. This bird is very wary in regard to its nest, and 

 will remain for hours at a time without returning to its eggs or 

 young, if aware of the presence of an observer. Its dull hue and 

 the tminess of its size in relation to its usual surroundings makes 

 the task of noting its return to its nest, one of great difficulty. The 

 eggs are usually four in number, sometimes five, the ground colour 

 greenish' white, but is so thickly covered with spots and markings 

 of dark brown, as to be almost invisible. Occasionally, but 

 very seldom, a variety with light reddish brown markings may b 

 found. 



Puffin This bird presents in the breeding season when its beak 

 is much enlarged, quite a humorous appearance. It is one of the 

 marine diving birds with habits similar to those of the Guillemot and 

 Razorbill, and breeds in similar localities. The Puffin, however, lays 

 its solitary egg at the end of a short burrow in the peat which usually 

 covers the tops of the small islands round our coast-line, or the cliff- 

 heads of the coast itself. The egg, when newly laid, is white with 

 faint under-shell markings of pale brown, but speedily through 

 contact with the peat, becomes stained and discoloured. ^ The 

 colour of the bird is black above, and white underneath, the sides of 

 the head a pale lavender, and the feet a brilliant red. The salient 

 point of the bird is its bill, very large for the size of the bird, and in 

 shape resembling that of the parrot. It is brilliantly coloured with 

 red, blue, and yellow. The Puffin is in its habits pelagic, save at the 

 breeding season, when it resorts in countless myriads to the remoter 

 parts of our isles to breed. The Puffin feeds its young on the fry of 

 certain fishes, and is particularly fond of the sand eel. The parent 

 bird may be seen returning to the nest with numbers of this latter 

 protruding from either side of the bill, each little fish neatly held just 

 behind the head. The movements of sand eels are not wanting in 

 alacrity, and it is interesting to conjecture how the bird retains its 

 hold of, say, the first nine caught, while capturing the tenth. 



