THE WILLOW-WRENS OF A LOTHIAN WOOD. 409 



Addled eggs are less frequent in this species than in many 

 others. Only one egg out of one hundred and twenty failed to 

 hatch, and this exception was a dwarf specimen, the first laid 

 egg of nest No. 14. Compare with Hedge-Sparrow or Yellow 

 Bunting. Whether there is any particular bias as to the direction 

 the nest should face is doubtful. In the foregoing list there 

 appears to be a tendency to avoidance of north, but in order to 

 decide the question it would be necessary to collect statistics of a 

 very much larger number of nests. Unfortunately this detail 

 has been neglected in previous years' records. 



After the fledging of the young the nests were taken to pieces 

 and their composition fully noted. These have been omitted 

 from the table to avoid a redundancy of details. Considerable 

 variation occurred. The following case (nest No. 15) may be 

 taken as representative, description commencing with exterior : 

 Few dead leaves ; little moss and dry fern-fronds ; much dry 

 grass, coarser at first, and of finer materials in inside cup, which 

 is also much more closely interwoven ; lining of a few horse- 

 hairs, rootlets, and one hundred and twenty feathers, mainly 

 Pheasant's. Dead leaves, moss, and fern-fronds are not always 

 used, and the lining of horsehair and rootlets may likewise be 

 absent. The feather lining is not always quite distinct from the 

 grass material, i. e. the bird, after having commenced the lining, 

 may add further grasses amongst the feathers. The quantity of 

 feathers used varied between fifty and two hundred and twenty 

 in number. Eleven nests had a predominance of Pheasant's 

 feathers ; six showed preference for those of Eing-Doves ; the 

 remainder were more varied. 



The commonest clutch is six. Thus there are : 1 four, 

 4 fives, 10 sixes, 4 sevens, 1 eight ; while the clutches of the 

 four second broods were 3, 3, 4, 4 respectively. The size of 

 clutch in birds is sometimes a little loosely stated. Most autho- 

 rities give the Willow-Wren's clutch as six to nine or five to 

 eight. But four is not a rare clutch, and three is found now 

 and then — even with first broods. There can be little doubt 

 that in this matter as in many others there is considerable local 

 difference, and detailed lists of clutches from each county in 

 Britain — if we had them — could not fail to be of considerable 

 interest from several aspects. To be of real service, however, 



