WHINCHAT. 
47 
in which it is found. One of our specimens, which was 
taken from a low bank in a district of meadow land, is 
composed almost entirely of small tufts of dry grass, such 
as are usually to be seen scattered in meadows that are much 
frequented by rooks; a little green moss is interwoven ex¬ 
ternally, and a few cow’s hairs are perceptible in the substance 
of the nest, but not disposed so as to form a lining : the 
whole constitutes a thick and elastic mattrass of a flatfish 
form, the cup, or hollow, of the nest being very shallow. 
This nest was not so well concealed as is usually the case, 
and the hen bird was surprised and taken prisoner with it, 
together with four eggs. Another of our nests is entirely 
different in the materials of which it is composed; these 
consist of green moss laid upon a foundation of a few dry 
stalks of heath; some skeleton leaves of the black poplar, 
whose stiff and seemingly unmanageable foot-stalks form 
the basket-work ; and two or three long horse-hairs. 
The eggs, which are from five to seven in number, re¬ 
semble very much, in size and form, those of the redbreast; 
they are delicate greenish-blue, more inclining to green than 
those of the wheatear, and are always speckled more or 
less with pale orange-brown about the larger end. The 
young birds, in their nestling plumage, are mottled with 
grey and white, but when fully fledged they bear much 
resemblance to the adult female in autumn feathering. 
One evening, in the summer of 1841, we watched for 
some time a young family of this species on Shepperton 
Range, a tract of open meadow land on the borders of 
the Thames, in Middlesex, a spot much frequented by these 
birds. The young ones had probably come out for their 
first flight, as we had not seen them previously, although 
the place was daily visited by us. They flew, by short 
flights, from bush to hedge, and from hedge to railing, 
fanning their short tails, and occasionally settling on the 
