STABLING. 153 



in Scotch firs, the entrance placed near the branch of the 

 tree, the nests being made of coarse grass, and lined with 

 fine grass. He also mentions in 'The Naturalist,' volume i, 

 page 214, some built in trees that were quite flat; and again, 

 page 116, that he has known them feloniously and burglari- 

 ously occupy the holes previously excavated by Sand Martins 

 for themselves, contrary to 'Martin's Act;' and J. Mc'Intosh, 

 Esq. also, at page 204, describing a famous chesnut tree in 

 the grounds of Canford House, Dorsetshire, one of five planted 

 by John of Gaunt, mentions that at its base was a colony 

 of rabbits, in the trunk a nest of cats, and immediately above 

 the latter, one of Starlings. 



The nest is large, and fabricated of straws, roots, portions 

 of plants, and dry grass, with a rude lining of feathers and 

 hairs. The birds will sometimes resort most pertinaciously 

 to the same building-place, in spite of every opposition, dis- 

 couragement, and blockade. In one instance the eggs have 

 been said to have been found in the nest of a Magpie. 



The eggs, four or five to six in number, are of a delicate 

 pale blue colour: some have a few black dots. 



Incubation lasts about sixteen days: both birds feed the 

 young. 



Male; length, nine inches and a quarter to nine and a 

 half; bill, pale yellow, except close to the base; iris, dark 

 chesnut brown, sometimes yellowish; the head, which is much 

 flattened on the crown, trending straight back from the bill, 

 as also the neck, nape, chin, throat, breast, and back, black, 

 splendidly glossed in different lights with purple, bronze, 

 copper-colour, gold, and green, the latter predominating on 

 the neck and head, and each feather minutely tipped with 

 pale brownish white, white, or cream-coloured round or 

 triangular-shaped spots, which wear out in the spring; in 

 very old birds the head and neck in front are without any 

 of the white spots. 



The wings, which expand to the width of one foot three 

 inches and a half to three quarters, and reach to within 

 three quarters of an inch of the tip of the tail, have the 

 first feather very short, the third the longest, the second the 

 next, the fourth the next, the remainder slowly graduated, 

 shortening by about a quarter of an inch each; greater and 

 lesser wing coverts, dusky, edged with pale reddish brown; 

 primaries, secondaries, and tertiaries, dusky, their outer webs 

 more or less glossed with green, and margined with light 



