63 



peculiar notes of a pair of Twites, I searched among some tall shrubs, and found three newly- 

 fledged young ones, and soon afterwards a nest with one addled egg, near the top of an elder, 

 about nine feet from the ground. The nest was very large and clumsily made, and altogether 

 different in appearance from the neat little structures one finds in walls or upon hill-sides. 

 These in the latter situations usually have very little beneath the lining, sometimes nothing at 

 all ; but in this one there was a mass, about three inches and a half in thickness, of coarse roots 

 and pieces of dried brittle elder twigs, entirely filling the fork of the branch. The outer portion 

 of the nest itself was composed of coarse roots and stalks of plants ; and next to this was a layer 

 of very fine roots ; then came a layer of curved white Ducks' feathers, and lastly a thick layer 

 of wool intermixed with hair of cows and ponies. The straggling appearance of the nest was 

 partly due to the very unusual addition of large quill feathers above the upper edge, the longest 

 measuring eight inches in length. The inside diameter of the nest was about three inches." 



I am indebted to Mr. Macdonald, of Lochmaddy, for a nest containing five eggs of the Twite, 

 together with another clutch of eggs, all taken this year. The nest is rather a neat and well- 

 formed structure, composed of fine roots and bents intermixed with a little wool and a good 

 many heads of the down of a small thistle, and is lined with fine hair and rootlets. It measures 

 2 inches in height, 3-2 in outside and 1-5 in inside diameter, the cup being T5 in depth. The 

 eggs are pale blue, marked chiefly at the larger end with dark red, and measure -f$ by -f § inch 

 in size. 



The specimens figured are an adult male in early spring plumage and one in autumn dress, 

 the latter being the upper figure on the Plate. 



In the preparation of the above article I have examined the following specimens : — 



E Mus. H. JS. Dresser. 



a,b, s ■ Hampstead, October 13th, 1869. c, ? . Hampstead, October 14th, 1869 (Davy) . d,e,f,s. Southend- 

 on-the-Thames, February 20th, 1870 [Davy), g, 6 . Dovre, Norway, June 15th, 1871 (Collett). 



2p 



