36 EGGS AND EGG-COLLECTING. 
should conclude, from long observation, that more Cuckoos 
are bred and reared by this bird than all the other foster- 
parents put together; and it is remarkable what affection 
it shows for the adopted nursling. Not long ago I had the 
misfortune to shoot a young Cuckoo during the dusk of 
evening in mistake for a Hawk, and was struck with pity 
on seeing the poor Meadow Pipit light on the dead body of 
the unfortunate victim, and try to drag it away as I ap- 
proached. So 
THE PIED FLYCATCHER. 
Tuts bird seems to resort annually to the same locality, 
and use the same nest year after year, which is com- 
posed of moss, grass, bents, feathers, hair, &c., and is 
situated in holes in pollard-trees and walls. She lays four 
or five eggs, of a pale blue, which might not erroneously 
be described as greenish-blue, unspotted. 
THE TREE PIPIT. 
Tux Tree Pipit’s nest is always on the ground, beneath the 
shelter of a tuft of grass or low bush, and is made of 
fibrous roots, moss, and wool, lined with fine grass and 
hair. The eggs number from four to six, and are so 
variable in colour that verbal description is almost: baffled 
in attempting to convey an impression of what they are 
like. Some are purple-red, thickly sprinkled with spots of 
a deeper shade; others of a yellowish-white, spotted and 
sprinkled all over with greyish-brown, like a Sparrow’s 
egg. pe es 
THE DUNLIN. 
Tue nesting-place of the Dunlin is on the sea-beach, 
among the shingle, heather, or long grass at the mouth of 
