94 THE BIRDS OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



found dead from natural causes than perhaps any 

 other British bird. In March the Redwings usually 

 reappear in force on their return towards their breed- 

 ing-quarters, and, as a rule, are gone by the middle 

 of April, though a few stragglers occasionally linger 

 with us till May, and I have more than once heard 

 a Redwing and a Nightingale on the same day. 

 Instances of this bird's breeding in our Islands are on 

 record, but do not seem to be very clearly authenti- 

 cated, the principal breeding-resorts in Europe being 

 Sweden and Norway. 



A nest of this species in my possession much 

 resembles that of the Blackbird, though considerably 

 smaller, being made of small twigs and moss, with a 

 coat of dried mud and a lining of grass ; the eggs 

 belonging to this nest were four in number, and 

 might be mistaken for minute varieties of Blackbird's 

 eggs from their general colour and style of markings, 

 though they are more pointed than those of that bird. 

 The late Mr. John Wolley, to whom European orni- 

 thologists must always remain vastly indebted for his 

 laborious and wonderfully successful researches in 

 Northern Europe, is quoted in Yarrell's ' British Birds,' 

 4th ed. vol. i. p. 269, with regard to the nesting of 

 this species in Lapland, as follows : — " It makes its 

 nest near the ground, in an open part of the wood, 

 generally in the outskirts, on a stump, a log, on the 

 roots of a fallen tree, sometimes amongst a cluster of 

 young stems of the birch, usually quite exposed, so 

 as almost to seem as if placed so purposely, the walls 

 often supported only by their foundation." It appears 

 that opinion is much divided as to the song of the 

 Redwing. It has been called the northern Nightin- 

 gale, but though it seems that Linneeus considered 

 that its notes rivalled those of the real Nightingale, 



