132 
SYLVIAD.E. 
itself is, however, so well concealed, that except when the birds 
are passing in and out with materials for building, or with 
food for their nestlings, the exact spot occupied by it is not 
detected without great difficulty. The situation chosen for 
the nest is usually the slope of a hill, shaded by lofty trees, 
where the rays of the sun are not too much excluded to ad¬ 
mit the undergrowth of rich grass and moss, and other si¬ 
milar productions: the twisted roots of a tree sometimes 
afford in their cavities a convenient shelter, if covered with 
moss or other low herbage; or a moist and mossy bank. 
All naturalists agree in describing the nest as so placed 
and bedded among the surrounding herbage: the nest itself 
is also spoken of as hooded over the top, like those of the 
willow-wren and chiff-chaff, and commonly composed of 
materials similar to those among which it is placed; such 
as dead grasses, moss, or fern. The nest is skilfully but 
not very thickly woven, hooded over, but sufficiently open 
for the eggs to be seen; the interior is very neatly rounded 
and deep, lined with the seed panicles of grass, horse-hair, 
wool, or feathers. The eggs are from five to seven in num¬ 
ber, short in form, being almost round ; the shell delicate 
and but little polished. The ground-colour is white, thickly 
seeded over with dark violet or purple spots, intermixed 
with pale grey dots, which form a zone round the larger end. 
In their colouring these eggs differ entirely from those of 
the two nearly allied species, the S. hijjjjolais, and S. trochi- 
lus, but agree with them usually in the roundness of their form. 
The hooded form ascribed to these nests does not, how¬ 
ever, appear to be an invariable character, as we have lately 
met with a nest which we cannot doubt to belong to this 
species, in which no appearance of a hood could be traced. 
This nest was taken on St. Anne’s-hill in Surrey. It was 
situated upon the brow of that beautiful hill, near a grove of 
tall trees. No doubt can exist of its belonging to the present 
