DTINNOCK. 11 



air' of the north succeed a comparatively milder time, it 

 chills the heart of the little warbler, and his strains are in 

 consequence curtailed. Yet, on the other hand, Mr. Weir 

 has heard the Dunnock singing regularly at night about 

 eleven o'clock, in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh, even in 

 the darkest evenings of autumn and winter, and when the 

 weather was cold and frosty. Its ordinary note is a small 

 cheep. The shuffling of the wings just spoken of, frequently 

 accompanies its musical performances. It has been observed 

 in confinement to imitate the notes of other kinds of birds 

 kept with it, making a strange medley of all together. 



The nest is generally placed in hedges, low furze or other 

 bushes, or shrubs, a few feet from the ground, but also in 

 lack of these, in holes of walls, stacks of wood, in the ivy 

 against a wall, and other similar places. The Eev. Charles 

 Forge, of Driffield, records in the 'Zoologist,' pages 658-9, 

 that he found one among the small branches of an elm 

 tree, standing apart from any hedge. It was placed close 

 to the bole or trunk of the tree, at about ten feet from 

 the ground. Exteriorly, it was composed of wheat straw, 

 intermingled with small recently-dead twigs of the elm, to 

 which the dried leaves were still attached. It had no other 

 lining than the green moss commonly used by the Hedge- 

 Chanter in the construction of its nest, and contained a single 

 egg. One has been known built on a disused garden roller. 

 An outhouse is sometimes made use of for the purpose. 



It is deep and well rounded, and from four and a half to 

 five inches in diameter on the outside, and nearly two 

 inches deep. It is made of small twigs and grass, lined 

 with moss, and then with hair, grass, wool, or down, or any 

 appropriate substances at hand. 



The eggs, which are sometimes seen so early as the beginning 

 of April, are four or five, rarely six, though sometimes, it is 

 said, seven in number, and of a very elegant greenish blue 

 colour, with a rather glossy surface. Archibald Hepburn, Esq., 

 records in the 'Zoologist,' page 431, his having seen an egg 

 of this species, which was thrown out of the nest by the 

 parents, and was of a bluish white colour, mottled and 

 speckled with light brown; it was much rounder than the 

 usual shape, and was empty inside. 



Incubation lasts eleven days, and two broods are often 

 reared in the year; preparations for one being made about 

 the middle of March, and for the latter at the beginning 



