lio British Birds, with their Nests and Eggs. 



with : tiie difl&culty of this mode of progression is, however, by no means so great 

 as one would imagine; but, when the nest is discovered, and it is necessary to 

 turn round and retrace one's steps, the task is by no means so easy. 



Having noted the exact spot where my nest was situated, a second throw of 

 the ladder soon brought me within reach of it ; to my delight the clutch included 

 a Cuckoo's egg, but unhappily so much incubated that I made but a poor job of 

 preparing that nest for my collection ; however, I still have it. I obtained several 

 other nests with fresh eggs in the course of the morning ; but I have never since 

 adopted the same method for securing nests of the Reed- Warbler. 



In Kent the birds are extremely common in the dykes, but the nests most 

 dif&cult to find ; indeed it is no uncommon thing to work carefully along half a 

 mile of dyke, hearing the weak and monotonous song the whole time and turning 

 aside the reeds with a long stick continuousl}^ yet not finding a single nest ; 

 shortly afterwards, on reaching a reedy duck pond, with an old wooden box for a 

 boat, and a pole to scull it withal, one finds the nests easily enough. In the 

 reeds bordering the Norfolk broads there is no difficulty in obtaining nests, if one 

 rows close along the outer edge of the reed-belt ; also in the narrow dykes running 

 into some of the broads they may be found. 



The nest is a strongly constructed, deep cup, formed of dry grasses and bents, 

 or the flowering tops of the reed, with sometimes a little moss and plenty of 

 cobweb ; the cup being lined internally with fine grassy fibre or horsehair. 



The nests obtained by i\Ir. Salter were unusually large and compact, formed 

 of carefully selected stout grasses interwoven with some woolly substance (appar- 

 ently vegetable), and externally swathed tightl}- with stronger grasses: the first 

 sent to me contained four eggs, somewhat larger and more boldly marked than 

 most eggs of this species. I wrote to Mr. Salter asking him to try and discover 

 something further respecting it. On the 27th June, he wrote to me from Downton, 

 as follows : — " I will forward, per parcel post, to you, another nest like the one 

 you have. I found it last Saturday with three young birds and one egg. I went 

 again to-day and found the young ones just ready to fly. I managed to shoot 

 one of the old ones with a catapult, but could not manage to get the other, 

 although I waited about three hours. The nest was overhanging the water about 

 fifty yards from where I got the other." 



The egg and birds forwarded with this second nest were quite normal, and I 

 regretted that specimens had been destroyed in order to prove the fact : however, 

 the birds have not died in vain, for one at least will be immortalised on the plate 

 accompanying this article. 



The number of eggs in a clutch varies from five to six; they are dull 



