NOR WA Y 27 



contained five, four, three, five, two, five, five, and five 

 eggs each, were found mostly by ourselves, but a few by 

 the little boys who helped us. The nests were composed 

 almost entirely of a fine, long, dry grass, with layer of 

 mud or clay between the outer and inner layers of grass. 

 The first nest found had a few birch twigs in the founda- 

 tion, the others have a few sprays of moss. They were 

 pretty well scattered in an open birch-wood situated in 

 pollard and other birch-trees, most in the forks, a few on 

 tops of stumps, none at more than 20 feet from the 

 ground, most of them about 10 or 12 feet, and an 

 unfinished one taken by Alston was about 2 feet only 

 from the ground. I shot the hen bird off the first nest, 

 the eggs in which were finely covered, and like some eggs 

 of the Eing Ouzel. The birds were not at all bold. 



We sawed into the nest of the Pied Flycatcher, but 

 found no eggs. Our tools worked well. Alston shot an 

 immature male bird of this species and another Northern 

 Marsh Tit. 



We got back about 1 p.m., and then had breakfast, 

 for which we were in uncommonly good form. Alston 

 had two cups of coffee, half a bottle of beer, five eggs, 

 ham, cheese, bread, etc., etc., and I was not far behind 

 him, although at one time he was two eggs ahead of me. 

 Bad look-out for Herr Fleischer's larder and profits. The 

 rest of the day was spent in skinning birds, blowing, mark- 

 ing, and packing eggs, nests, etc. W T e had coffee and trout at 

 6 p.m. instead of dinner. 



This day we saw the first Blackbird, a female. We 

 also saw a pair or two of Bramblings, but do not think 

 they have nests yet. 



To-day we saw another peasant wedding party pass the 

 hotel, much the same as on Tuesday, but the costumes 

 slightly different. This party came from the westward. 

 The bride came in one head-dress, but went away with 



