IX THE GREENFINCH AND WHITETHROAT 89 



the lichens and moss of a similar colour. Even her eggs are 

 much of the same hue. Sometimes this bird builds in the wall 

 fruit trees, when she collects substances of exactly the same 

 colour as the wall itself. 



The greenfinch, building amongst the green foliage of trees, 

 covers her nest with green moss, while her eggs resemble in 

 colour the lining on which they are laid. The yellow-hammer, 

 again, builds on or near the ground, and forming her nest out- 

 wardly of dried grass and fibres, like those by which it is 

 Surrounded, lines it with horsehair ; her eggs too are not unlike 

 in colour to her nest — while the greenish-brown of the bird 

 herself, closely resembles the colour of the grass and twigs 

 about her. 



The little whltethroat builds her nest on the ground, at the 

 root of a tree or in long withered grass, and carefully arches 

 it over with the surrounding herbage, and to hide her little 

 white eggs, places a leaf in front of the entrance whenever she 

 leaves her nest. When the partridge quits her eggs for the 

 purpose of feeding, she covers them in the most careful manner, 

 and even closes up her run by which she goes to and fro through 

 the surrounding grass. The same plan is adopted by the wild 

 duck, who hides her eggs and nest by covering them with dead 

 ;leaves, sticks, and other substances, which she afterwards smooths 

 carefully over so as entirely to conceal all traces of her dwelling. 

 There are several domesticated wild ducks, who build their 

 nests about the flower-beds and lawn near the windows — a 

 privilege they have usurped rather against the will of my 

 gardener. Tame as th'ese birds are, it is almost impossible to 

 catch them in the act of going to or from their nests. They 

 take every precaution to escape observation, and. will wait for a 

 long time rather than go to their nests if people are about the 

 place. 



The pewits, who lay their eggs on the open fields with 

 scarcely any nest, always manage to choose a spot where loose 

 stones or other substances of the same colour as their eggs are 

 scattered about. The terns lay their eggs in the same manner 

 amongst the shingle and gravel. So do the ring-dotterel, the 

 oyster-catcher, and several other birds of the same description : 

 all of them selecting spots where the gravel resembles, their 

 eggs in size and colour. Without these precautions, the grey 



