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and enjoys, even amongst boys, a sort of protection, its nest being comparatively seldom robbed 
if other nests are to be had. It is rather an early breeder, and constructs a most elaborately 
built nest, which is placed in a bush or hedge, or in a creeper or convenient place at the side of 
a tree, or else in some outbuilding, or (where I have often found nests) in an old faggot-stack. 
Macgillivray, writing on the nidification of this species, says that it “pairs about the middle of 
spring, and begins early in April to construct its nest, which varies much in form and compo- 
sition, according to the locality. One brought me by my son, and which he found while 
gathering plants in a wood near Melville Castle, is of astonishing size compared with that of its 
architect, its greatest diameter being seven inches, and its height five. It presents the appearance 
of a rude mass of decayed vegetables, of an irregularly rounded form. Having been placed on a 
flat surface under a bank, its base is of a corresponding form, and is composed of layers of 
decayed ferns and other plants, mixed with twigs of herbaceous and woody vegetables. Similar 
materials have been employed in raising the outer wall of the nest itself, of which the interior is 
spherical, and three inches in diameter. The wall is composed of mosses of several species, quite 
fresh and green; and it is arched over with fern leaves and straws. The mosses are curiously 
interwoven with fibrous roots and hair of various animals; and the inner surface is even and 
compact, like coarse felt. To the height of two inches there is a copious lining of large and soft 
feathers, chiefly of the Wood-Pigeon, but also of the Pheasant and Domestic Duck, with a few 
of the Blackbird. The aperture, which is in front, and in the form of a low arch, two inches in 
breadth at the base, and an inch and a half in height, has its lower edge formed of slender twigs, 
strong herbaceous stalks, and stems of grasses, the rest being felted in the usual manner. This 
nest is a magazine of botany, there entering into its composition leaves of Fagus sylvatica, fronds 
of Aspidium dilatatum and A. filix-mas, blades of Phalaris arundinacea, stems of several grasses 
and other herbaceous plants, some twigs of the larch and other trees, and four or five species of 
Hypnum. It contained five eggs, of an elongated oval form, averaging eight lines in length, and 
six lines in breadth, pure white, with some scattered dots of light red at the larger end, one of 
them with scarcely any, and another with a great number. Of three nests presented to me by 
Mr. Weir, one is extremely beautiful, being composed entirely of fresh green Hypna, without 
any internal layer, although, no eggs having been found it, it possibly had not been completed. 
It is of an oblong form, seven inches in length, and four in its transverse diameter. The mouth 
measures an inch and eight twelfths across, one inch and a twelfth in height. Its lower part is 
composed of small twigs of larch laid across and interwoven, so as to present a firm pediment. 
The longitudinal diameter of the interioy is three inches and a half. Another, formed on a 
decayed tuft of Aira cespitosa, is globular, six inches in diameter, and composed of moss, with a 
lining of hair and feathers, chiefly of the domestic fowl. The third is globular, and externally 
formed almost entirely of ferns, like that described above. In all the nests of this species which 
I have seen, the lower part of the mouth was composed of twigs of trees, or stems of herbaceous 
plants, laid across, and kept together with moss and hair.” Professor Newton (Brit. Birds, 
p- 462) remarks that this species adapts its nest to the place where it is built; thus, “if built 
against a hayrick the exterior of the nest is composed of hay, i against a tree covered with white 
lichen, it is studded with that material, and formed of green moss if against a tree overgrown 
with the same.” He further remarks that this precaution is not always used by the bird, in 
