80 EGGS AND EGG-COLLECTING. 
banks of large bodies of water in Scotland and Ireland. 
I have seen it on the banks of streams, where it must have 
been washed away by the first freshet. It is composed of 
bits of heather, dry leaves, and down from the bird’s own 
body. The eggs number from six or seven to nine, or 
even a dozen, and vary from buffish-grey to pale olive-grey 
in colour. 
THE GREENSHANK, 
Breeps chiefly in the Highlands of Scotland, and the 
islands lying to the west thereof. Its nest is merely a 
slight declivity lined with a few bits of dry grass, dead 
heather, or leaves. The eggs number four, of a stone 
colour or creamy-white, spotted and blotched dark 
reddish-brown and grey. 
THE WHIMBREL. 
Tue islands to the west and north of Scotland are the 
breeding home of the Whimbrel. A slight dry hollow in 
the shelter of a tussock of grass or heath is selected on 
some lonely piece of moor. The nest is lined with a few 
blades of withered grass, sprigs of heather, or dead leaves. 
The eggs number four, varying from darkish buff to olive- 
green, spotted and blotched with reddish-brown, olive- 
brown, and underlying markings of grey. 
THE REED WARBLER 
Turis bird suspends its nest between the stems of reeds and 
branches of willows and other trees growing from or over 
