156 FAMILIAR WILD BIRDS. 



of the Sandpiper species, being a natural depression in the 

 ground, with a lining of dead leaves, or other such material 

 as may be procured within easy reach of the place chosen. 

 The eggs are four in number, of varying ground colour, 

 from pale brown to pale greenish-grey, spotted and blotched 

 with rich brown, the spots generally confluent at the 

 larger end ; but the colour is probably subject to as many 

 variations as the Dunlin's eggs, already described. 



THE LONG-EARED OWL. 



LIKE the Hawk tribe generally, this bird manifests an un- 

 mistakable dislike for maternal labour, as she contents 

 herself with the old nest of a Crow, Magpie, or the 

 abandoned home of a Squirrel. Some collectors give the 

 number of eggs as from three to seven ; but four or five 

 is the general rule, and numbers above the last figure 

 quoted the exception. The eggs are white, and almost as 

 blunt at one end as the other. 



THE SHIELDRAKE. 



THE labours of the Rabbit are utilised by the Shieldrake, 

 and almost indispensable to her for incubation purposes, 

 as she deposits dried flags, bents, reeds, and a liberal 

 quantity of down, plucked from her own body, at the bottom 

 of a deep burrow, after having enlarged and improved it to 

 suit her purpose. She lays from eight even to twice that- 

 number of eggs, of a very smooth, roundish, oblong shape. 

 They are cream colour, or nearly white in colour. 



THE REDWING. 



THIS bird very rarely builds in the British Isles, but 

 abundantly in Norway, Sweden, and other high latitudes 



