often in ivy-covered walls or trees. It sometimes selects peculiar sites for 

 building in, such as old tin boxes or cans lying half buried in the grass, 

 in old tool-bags in the gardener's potting-shed, even inside a conservatory, 

 where it goes in and out through a broken pane of glass. The nest is 

 usually very bulky, and has one very marked peculiarity in its construction 

 the cup prepared to receive the eggs is at the extreme end of the hole in 

 which the nest is built, and the front of the nest is large and very much 

 extended. The nest is composed of a large foundation of withered leaves, 

 moss, and dry grass, with a rather deep and beautifully rounded cup lined 

 with hair, rootlets, and sometimes a little wool. 



From five to eight eggs are laid, six being the usual clutch. They are 

 pure white in ground-colour, spotted, streaked, and freckled with various 

 shades of browns, reds, and a few greyish markings. Some specimens have 

 the markings collected into a zone round the larger end of the eggs, others 

 are nearly spotless white, while some are boldly blotched with rich dark 

 reddish-brown with a few very dark brown streaks and spots. They fade 

 considerably if kept for any length of time after being blown. They vary in 

 length from '9 to '69 inch, and from '65 to '55 inch in breadth. 



VOL. in. x 



77 



