WEEN. 137 



repeated that it sounds like a miniature watchman's rattle; 

 this is usually accompanied with a curtsying or dipping motion 

 in the manner of the Redbreast.' 



The nest, very large in size in proportion to the bird, and 

 ordinarily of a spherical shape, domed over, but flattened on 

 the side next the substance against which it is placed, varies 

 much both in form and substance according to the nature of 

 the locality which furnishes the materials and a 'locus standi' 

 for it. It is commenced early in the spring, even so soon 

 as the end of the month of March, the birds pairing in 

 February. One found by my second son, Reginald Frank 

 Morris, this autumn, in the beautiful grounds of Mulgrave 

 Castle, near Whitby, the seat of Lord Normanby, was placed 

 against the trunk of a large tree, about eight or ten feet 

 from the ground, and was chiefly composed externally of dry 

 leaves. Others are variously made of fern and moss, grass, 

 small roots, twigs, and hay, closely resembling in most cases 

 the immediate situation in which they are placed; some are 

 lined with hair or feathers, and others not. The nest is firmly 

 put together, especially about and below the orifice, which is 

 strengthened with small twigs or moss, and is in the upper 

 half and nearly closed by the feathers inside. It is in thickness 

 from one inch to two inches, and about three inches wide 

 within by about four in depth, and outside about five wide 

 by six deep. At times they are found on the ground, and 

 also in banks, as well as against trees, even so high up as 

 twenty feet, also under the eaves of the thatch of a building, 

 in holes in walls, the sides of stacks, among piles of wood 

 or faggots, or the bare roots of trees, and under the projection 

 at the top of the bank of a river; one has been known to 

 be placed in an old bonnet fixed up among some peas to 

 frighten the birds, and one close to a constant thoroughfare. 



Mr. Hewitson mentions one built against a clover stack, 

 and formed entirely of the clover, and so becoming part of 

 the stack itself. 



The late Mr. Thompson, of Belfast, records one adapted from 

 a Swallow's of the preceding year, built against a rafter 

 supporting a floor; another which did not present any ap- 

 pearance of a dome and was placed in the hole of a wall inside 

 a house, the only entrance being through a broken pane of 

 the window; and another constructed in a bunch of herbs 

 hung up to a beam against the top of an outhouse, almost 

 the entire nest being formed of the herbs, and the whole 



