154 FAMILIAR WILD BIRDS. 



THE SMEW. 



THE nesting-place of this bird is in high latitudes, such as 

 north-east Russia, and the situation chosen is in the 

 hollow trunk of a tree. The material of which the nest is 

 composed is taken from the bird's body, and consists 

 entirely of down. Her eggs number from seven to eight, 

 very similar to those of the Wigeon, creamy-white in 

 colour, fine-grained, and rather glossy. 



THE BLACK-HEADED BUNTING. 



MOIST swampy localities are chosen by this bird as the 

 situation for its nest, which is composed of dried grass, 

 moss, and an inner lining of finer grass, reed-down, or 

 horsehair, and generally, though not always, placed on the 

 ground, among rushes or coarse long grass. It lays four 

 or five eggs of a pale reddish -brown or grey with a rosy 

 tinge, streaked, veined, and spotted with brown of a rich 

 dark purple shade. 



THE GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER. 



THE position of the Woodpecker's nest is in the hollow 

 trunk of some tree, and if the hole leading to it is too 

 large, the parent bird invariably plasters it up to the 

 proper size for ingress and egress with clay. The eggs are 

 laid on pieces of wood chipped off inside, and number four 

 or five, white, occasionally stained or dyed by the material 

 on which they are laid. 



THE ROCK PIPIT. 



LEDGES or crevices of rocks near the sea-shore are the 

 favourite building-places of this bird. It collects such 



