FIELD SKETCHES. 



273 



nest is generally placed near the ground, in some low bush or hedge : " 

 whereas the editor of the late edition of his work observes, — " Among 

 several hundreds of these nests, with which I have been acquainted, I 

 have rarely indeed seen one ' placed in a low bush or hedge,' but almost 

 uniformly on the ground in a tuft of grass, or under the brow of a 

 ditch-bank." This example, therefore, especially as a casual occur- 

 rence, which is the case, may not be impertinent. By the way, I 

 remark, that Colonel Montagu says of the yellow-hammer, that (e it 

 does not breed till late in the spring." In the examples, already 

 spoken of, both broods were hatched several days before the date of 

 this letter (April 29). From some cause, which is not apparent, the 

 brood belonging to the nest on the ground had been forsaken by the 

 dam, and were found dead two or three days ago under and in the 

 nest : whilst those in the hedge are going on well at this time, being 

 of such a size and so nearly fledged, as to make it probable that in a 

 few days they will have flown. On turning to Syme's " British Song 

 Birds," I find it stated, that " the yellow bunting rarely builds on the 

 ground, preferring a low bush, or among reeds in moist places." Syme 

 states also, that " it generally builds in May." 



With reference to the engraving of the " oak in the hyacinth glass," 

 taken from the drawing which I sent you from Bath, and given in your 

 number for April, permit me to direct your attention to an error of the 

 artist, who has in the first place represented the acorn with the cup on, 

 which is of no great moment, and has also exhibited the plant as ger- 

 minating from the wrong end of the acorn : in fact, as if the plant 

 made its way through the cup. While on this subject, I may add, 

 that on one of the trees, spoken of in that letter, has been since dis- 

 covered, what the discoverer supposes to be, the caterpillar of the Torlrix 

 viridana, or small green oak moth, noticed in " Insect Architecture," 

 p. 162. At the risk of losing a future seventy-four for His Majesty's 

 navy, the little animal is allowed to live in the cottony habitation he 

 has spun for himself, and to come in and out to feed, when he pleases. 

 My informant inquires, " Is not this rather a curiosity ? Where can 

 the moth have laid the egg, and when ? Can it have been in the acorn, 

 and have been then nurtured through the process of vegetation ? The 

 moths are out in J une, and can hardly have deposited it at the time the 

 leaves were formed, which I imagine to be usual." 



In an inclosure on the outside of my garden is a small heap of manure, 

 the materials of which came partly from the stable, and partly from the 



VOL. I. NO. VI. (JUNE, 183.3.) T 



