OHIFF-CHAFF 
is the lining, which is composed of feathers only ; but it seems 
that close to the lining finer and more delicate grasses are 
used than in the outer parts. ‘The lower portion of the nest 
is more stoutly built than the upper, and the dead leaves are 
more securely glued together. ‘The eggs are usually six in 
number. 
I have already mentioned that the male takes little notice 
of the female after they are paired. This is more marked 
during the time she is laying and incubating; his attention 
during the former time is almost wholly limited to the periods 
immediately preceding coition, and during the latter this 
attention dwindles to almost nothing. When the female 
comes off the nest she is often pursued by the male, who, 
when close beside her, throws out his feathers in a similar 
manner as when courting; at other times she sits on a 
bramble calling continuously in an excited way, with her 
wings rapidly quivering; he then darts at her, pursuing 
her with rapid flight and playing with her in the air, the 
two of them often falling to the ground from the tops of 
the highest trees. 
There is much evidence to show that coition depends 
solely upon a certain condition in the female, for I have 
noticed that, during the period in which a bird is laying, it 
takes place generally when the female leaves her nest in the 
morning, less frequently in the evening, and usually at about 
the same time. Now whereas it often happens that the male 
makes overtures to the female, which are allowed to pass 
unheeded or which are sometimes even resented, yet directly 
the female is in the condition referred to, and displays it to 
the male, coition takes place. The attitudes indicative of 
this condition, and by which the female does undoubtedly 
display it to the male, vary in different species, but are at all 
times unmistakable—the arched neck and slow but stately 
walk of the Moorhen (Gallinula chloropus), the quivering 
wings and raised head and tail of many Passerine birds, the 
outspread and slowly flapping wings of some of the larger 
17 
