322 INSECTIVOR.E. 



and lined internally with hair. (Birds that line their nests 

 with long hairs, do not build in the depths of large forests.) 

 The nest is at no great elevation, but it is in general hidden 

 among sticks, or in a thick bush or close hedge. The external 

 part is rather loose, like a natural tuft of green moss; but 

 the interior is more elaborately worked, the hairs being 

 interwoven with each other ; and the friction of the bird and 

 eggs during the process of incubation, produces a sort of 

 felting, which very little action will produce in hairs inter- 

 laced with each other. It has, very, naturally, no doubt, 

 occurred to some who have mentioned this bird, that the 

 internal part of the nest is put together with paste (as 

 some books are, and, of course, that the materials are obtained 

 with scissors,) which is a process to which magpies will 

 resort, though, instead of paste, they are apt to daub with 

 more vulgar mortar, as the manner of some is among our- 

 selves. The nest, laborious as the construction of it is, is 

 generally finished by the end of March, and the depositing of 

 the eggs requires only four or five days ; so that the first 

 brood in the south of England would be too early for the 

 cuckoo ; but probably there is a second brood there, and in 

 the same nest. Farther to the north, the cuckoo is said to 

 prefer the nests of birds that build later. 



The colours of the titling are sober; the upper ] art is 

 brown, relieved with ash colour on the head and neck, and 

 with rust colour or reddish brown; the second coverts of 

 the wings tipped with white; quills and tail feathers black- 

 ish brown, margined with red brown; sides o! the neck, 

 throat, and breast, bluish grey; the rest ot the under part 

 greyish white. Female with the head more grey, and spotted 

 with brown ; the colours on the other parts less bright. The 

 song is continued for a considerable time in the winter 

 quarters of the birds, as they do not formally begin the 

 construction of their nests, during which they have little 



