158 HANDBOOK OF BRITISH INLAND BIRDS 
to building in good earnest, though it is noticeable 
that the rookeries in the distant and exposed wood- 
lands are often two or three weeks more backward 
than those in villages and gardens. Some of the 
old nests are repaired, and other new ones made ; 
and in an early year, before the end of February we 
may see the black tail of the sitting bird comfort- 
ably poked out over the edge of the black nest in 
the tops of the blossoming elms. The sticks for 
the nest are torn from trees, as well as collected 
upon the ground, and it is very " amusive," as 
Gilbert White says on another occasion, to watch 
the portly birds tumbling and bouncing among the 
smaller branches as they endeavour to wrench off 
the stout sappy branchlets with their bills. Small 
twigs and earthy grass-tufts go to make the inside 
layer, and the lining is of dry grass and leaves. 
The four or five eggs are various tints of brownish 
and greenish-white in ground colour, very variously 
spotted, blotched, and speckled with green, ash- 
grey, and dark greenish-brown. Two distinct and 
representative varieties are illustrated, and it is not 
uncommon to find a lighter type closely resembling 
the paler Carrion Crow's egg in the same plate. 
Often the eggs are indistinguishable from those of 
the Carrion Crow, apart from the nest and bird ; 
but their average size is smaller, the spots are often 
smaller, thicker, and more confused, and there is 
