ORIGINAL SKETCHES OF BRITISH BIRDS. 205 



However, the most sure and effective way of discovering the 

 nests of many of our spring migrants is to note the exact spot of 

 a district they frequent on their arrival ; there or thereabouts — 

 unless the halt, as in the case of the Wheatear, is destined to be 

 merely temporary — you may generally rely on meeting with them 

 two or three weeks later. I took a clutch of seven beautiful eggs 

 on May 18th, 1893, under circumstances which will serve by 

 their narration a twofold purpose, viz. to adorn my story and 

 point a moral. 



I had noticed a pair of Whinchats frequenting a broken 

 straggling hedgerow on their arrival just a month previously, and 

 had also remarked that an artificial cutting or trench, overgrown 

 with rank herbage, ran alongside of it. The movements of the 

 birds showed pretty plainly that they had come to stay, so, 

 merely jotting down in my note-book a memorandum as to the 

 species, locality, and date, I troubled no more about the matter 

 until the morning I removed their eggs to my cabinet. I have 

 merely related the above as evidence of what can be done by a 

 little intelligent observation in the early days of spring. I 

 would also impress upon all those who tread the paths of 

 ornithology the infinite value of learning the song of each 

 different bird ; many and many a time has a ripple of melody 

 betrayed the fact of a nest in my vicinity when I had little 

 suspected it. Again, it is of untold advantage to have at your 

 fingers' ends the different haunts affected by the different species 

 for nesting purposes, and the actual sites usually selected by 

 them. Moreover, it is not probable that your eye will see every 

 nest when you are hunting a hedge, or bank, or bushes, or the 

 brushwood and undergrowth of plantations and woods — far from 

 it; though the possession of a stout walking-stick, discreetly 

 used, will frequently make up for any ocular shortcomings. 



The eggs of the Whinchat vary in number from five to seven, 

 but, as has been already intimated, six is a favourite clutch. 

 Some are inclined to rotundity, others are elongated ; while their 

 ground colour is of a greenish-blue type, and occasionally exhibits 

 a polished appearance, more especially when the eggs have been 

 incubated for any length of time. Sometimes they are without 

 the wreath of brownish frecklings round the larger end, but in 

 most series this addition to their beauty is, I have reason to 



