152 FAMILIAR WILD BIRDS. 



should conclude, from long observation, that more Cuckoos 

 are bred and reared by this bird than all the other foster- 

 parents put together; and it is remarkable what affection 

 it shows for the adopted nursling. Not long ago I had the 

 misfortune to shoot a young Cuckoo during the dusk of 

 evening in mistake for a Hawk, and was struck with pity 

 on seeing the poor Meadow Pipit light on the dead body of 

 the unfortunate victim, and try to drag it away as I ap- 

 proached. 



THE PIED FLY- CATCHER. 



THIS bird seems to resort annually to the same locality, 

 and use the same nest year after year, which is com- 

 posed of moss, grass, bents, feathers, hair, &c., and is 

 situated in holes in pollard-trees and walls. She lays four 

 or five eggs, of a pale blue, which might not erroneously 

 be described as greenish-blue, unspotted. 



THE TEEE PIPIT. 



THE Tree Pipit's nest is always on the ground, beneath the 

 shelter of a tuft of grass or low bush, and is made of 

 fibrous roots, moss, and wool, lined with fine grass and 

 hair. The eggs number from four to six, and are so 

 variable in colour that verbal description is almost baffled 

 in attempting to convey an impression of what they are 

 like. Some are purple-red, thickly sprinkled with spots of 

 a deeper shade ; others of a yellowish- white, spotted and 

 sprinkled all over with greyish-brown, like a Sparrow's 



THE DUNLIN. 



THE nesting-place of the Dunlin is on the sea-beach, 

 among the shingle, heather, or long grass at the mouth of 



