and in its Neighbourhood in 1864. 55 



days at it : both worked standing in the nest, and only their 

 pretty little heads were visible. The portico came out very 

 grandly — a tube 2^ inches long, tolerably thick, and strongly 

 woven. A couple more days were spent in thickening and 

 strengthening the sides and bottom of the nest ; and on the 

 thirteenth day, seeing that they had left off working, and that 

 the female kept very much in the nest, I guessed that she was 

 laying; and though it grieved me much to take from the 

 industrious little pair the product of their labour, I sent up a 

 boy to get the nest ; for the naturalist must sometimes play the 

 thief, and even worse, to prosecute his studies. The nest con- 

 tained one very small white egg. I measured the nest, and found 

 it 8^ inches in length, 4 in breadth, and 17 along the greater 

 circumference; in the bottom the down was 3 inches thick. 

 The adult bird is hardly 3^ inches in length, from the tip of 

 the bill to the root of the tail. 



In the middle of April nests were brought to me with their 

 full number of eggs, which varied from four to six ; towards the 

 end of the month very young birds were brought to me ; and 

 about the middle of May I began to see some youngsters, insect- 

 hunting about the poplars, with their parents ; after the middle 

 of July they disappeared, going, I suppose, towards theMaremma, 

 and now and then only have I seen a straggler on the white 

 poplars. In the Maremma Marshes many Pendulines build, 

 constructing a less beautiful nest with aquatic plants and 

 grasses. 



During the winter, Motacilla alba is abundant along the roads, 

 while Pallenura boarula keeps to the small torrents of the Monte 

 Pisano. Budytes flava, B. cinereocapilla, and B. melanocephala 

 (which two last I consider mere permanent varieties or races of 

 the first-named, and I think can as yet only be described as 

 incipient species) arrive in small flocks in April, and may always 

 be seen in the marshy meadows frequented by cattle and horses 

 along the river. Spipola pratensis abounds in the same localities 

 during winter, while the Tree Pipit [Pipastes arbor eus) appears 

 in spring frequenting corn-fields and meadows. 



The Dipper (Cmc^MS aquaticus) is never found in the Pisan plain; 

 but it is pretty common in the Lucchese Apennines, and I have 



