NATURAL HISTORY NOTES 
13 
rank dry grass for purposes of concealment. The blue eggs attracted the eye 
from quite a distance. The nest itself was strangely unorthodox, only a small 
portion of it being built in the ordinary way. On the left hand side alone was 
there the usual outer wall of bents and dry roots cemented on the inside ; the 
back wall was formed by the deepest part of the hoofmark, apparently untouched ; 
on the right hand side the bird, so far from trying to conceal itself, had actually 
pulled down some of the dry coarse grass to the bottom of the nest, but had left 
it uncemented ; the front was quite open and the ground outside on a level with 
the bottom of the nest. This is not clearly shown owing to the photograph 
having been taken from above. The position was so exposed that it was feared 
the adventurous bird would come to some harm. It was predicted that being so 
Thrush’s Nest on the Ground. 
conspicuous it would fall a victim to a sparrowhawk which regularly beats the 
fields in the neighbourhood. Probably this actually occurred, as our thrush did 
not sit for long. The nest was found deserted and the eggs scattered, two of 
them being some inches away from the rest. No apparent reason could be 
assigned to account for so rash an experiment. In the Yorkshire Daily Post 
of May 27 this year, there was a note from a correspondent concerning a thrush’s 
nest containing five eggs, which he found built in the middle of an open field, 
but which was so artfully concealed that, returning with a friend a week later, 
he was unable for some time to rediscover it. Whilst searching around they 
