9722 Birds. 



wheeling round the cliffs and dropping among the branches, each 

 arrival causing a momentary clamour, and as late as half-past 9 P. M. 

 a subdued chattering note or call was heard. 



Martin. — June 7. Observe that a pair of martins are building under 

 the eaves of a neighbour's house: the walls of the nest being but half 

 finished, it is of an inclined seuii-cup-like form, dij)ping towards the 

 centre, loth. Though the nest is now well nigh finislied, the aperture 

 is as yet too wide, but is being expeditiously rounded off, the birds 

 frequently going into the nest to carry on the work. There is a second 

 nest under the same roof, though not quite so advanced, but a third 

 on another building seems to be nearly, if not quite, finished. 14th. 

 All the nests now a])i:)oar perfect externally. Judging IVoni the darker 

 colour of the clay, about half an inch must have been added since 

 yesterday to complete the walls of the second nest. 



Blackbird. — A pair of blackbirds most unaccountably forsook their 

 nest after the fourth egg had been laid ; it was so well concealed, too, 

 that no one knew of its whereabouts but myself; however, being so 

 near the ground, the birds may have been alarmed by the cat. The 

 four eggs point inwards and incline downwards. Though I have not 

 observed that the eggs of the blackbird vary much in colour, no two 

 artists seem to paint them alike. I have now three representations 

 before me, not one of them correct: in the more recent work the egg 

 is so thickly spotted and blotched with reddish and yellowish brown 

 that little ground colour is to be seen, and that little is of a light 

 greenish yellotv. The florid style, even of our best artists, is much to 

 be regretted. There is on the outside of the nest, at the base, a con- 

 siderable quantity of clay, serving to fix it to the stems and roots of 

 the ivy near the ground ; its weight, with three eggs (one having burst 

 by exposure to the sun) is six ounces and three-quarters. Embedded 

 externally in the walls of the nest are a few stalks of weeds and the 

 roots of divers plants, with which and coarse grass it is broadly and 

 thickly margined. Tlie lining is of a finer grass, resting on layers of 

 a coarser kind, intermixed with leaves, moss, bits of silk and a feather 

 or two, tending to prove that the blackbird is not over nice in the 

 choice of materials. On the 16th of June the song of the blackbird 

 was heard a little before 3 A. M. 



White Wagtail. — June 7. Saw two light-coloured wagtails feeding 

 among the decaj^ed sea-weed, but supposing them to be immature young 

 of the pied species I took no further notice of them; but on the 15th, 

 -when strolling along the cliffs, a grayish white wagtail suddenly alighted 

 within three yards of me, its beak full of some material, proving it to 



