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its eggs in the early part of the latter month. Its nest is sometimes loosely constructed, and at 

 others, though less frequently, neatly finished. The outer portion is made of dried grass-straws, 

 fine roots, and moss ; and the lining is composed of hair and feathers. Mr. Robert Collett sent 

 me a very beautiful and carefully constructed nest of this bird which was taken by him out of 

 a hollow birch tree in Norway on the 9th of June 1872, and which is formed chiefly of the hair 

 of the Lemming (Myodes lemmus), and lined with white feathers of the Willow-Ptarmigan. 

 Messrs. Harvie Brown and Alston also inform me that they " took a Redstart's nest on the 

 Fille-fj eld, at an elevation of over 3000 feet, on the 12th of June, 1871, out of a hollow tree 

 which was still surrounded by patches of snow, and that this nest was composed entirely of the 

 pure white feathers of the Willow-Ptarmigan, the contrast of which with the pale blue eggs 

 was extremely beautiful." I have usually found the nest of this species in a hollow tree or a 

 hole in a wall, most frequently in the former position ; but Professor Newton says that it is also 

 to be found " placed in the roof of a building or behind a branch of a tree that is trained 

 against a wall, and sometimes in a hole on the ground, even where there has happened to be 

 abundance of trees ; while many more exceptional localities have been observed to be chosen on 

 occasion by the bird — such as a large inverted flower-pot, to which entrance was obtained 

 through a hole in the bottom, a partly open drawer in a garden-shed, the gudgeon of a door- 

 hinge, as figured by Bishop Stanley, not to mention convenient niches in the interior of inhabited 

 houses. In Lapland on more than one occasion Wolley found that a Redstart had laid its eggs 

 in the nest of a Titmouse (Pants cinctus)." Mr. Carl Sachse, who informs me that it arrives at 

 Altenkirchen, near Coblentz, on the Rhine, late in March or early in April, and leaves in August 

 or September, says that it breeds oftener in the woods than in the gardens, and places its nest in 

 hollow trees or else in the holes of old walls, or in niches and holes in the bridges. He also 

 took nests in Saxony both in the hollow portions of old willows and also on those trees. Mr. R. 

 Collett informs me that in June 1871 he took a Redstart's nest with eight eggs at Selsvand, 

 north of Namsos, and that it was built within eighty paces of a nest then occupied by a pair of 

 Sea-Eagles (H. albicilla), who probably looked on the Redstarts as too insignificant to be 

 interfered with. I have often noticed that small birds build close to or even in the foundations 

 of nests tenanted by the larger raptores, probably because they feel themselves more secure in 

 the vicinity of so powerful a neighbour, and are themselves too small and insignificant to be 

 attacked by him. I have seen nests of Aguila mogilnik and Aquila pennata, the foundations of 

 which were full of Sparrows' nests. 



Mr. Weir informed Professor Macgillivray that a pair of Redstarts built their nest and 

 reared their young in a hole at the gable end of a cottage within a few yards of a public road, 

 although a weaver occupied the house and had from five o'clock in the morning until ten at 

 night three looms in continual operation within twelve feet of the nest, which was in the inside 

 of the garret, and only a few open planks placed between them. 



I have a series of Redstarts' eggs obtained chiefly in Finland and England by myself, and in 

 Norway by Mr. R. Collett, all of which are of a clear greenish blue colour, and vary in size from 

 t~o by fo to f-jj by |-jj inch. Sometimes the eggs of this species have a few faint reddish specks 

 scattered over the surface of the shell. The number of eggs deposited varies from five to eight ; 

 and two broods are usually raised in the season. 



