NESTS AND EGGS. 
itself. Towards tlie end of April, and even so early as March, 
in some well-sheltered places, yonng birds have been fonnd in 
their nests. Robin is by no means particular where he builds 
his house ; under a hedge or bush, on a mossy bank, in a 
ditch, even on the ground, but not in tree, shrub, or hedge. It 
is a bulky nest, rather loosely constructed ; in fact, Robin is 
not so skilful an architect as poets and naturalists have painted 
him. Its foundations are a layer of moss and decayed leaves 
of trees, with broad blades of grass, mosses of several species 
loosely interwoven with a few skeleton leaves ; the lining is of 
hair and wool, a quarter of an inch thick, so that it appears 
Robin is partial to a soft bed. The eggs (fig. 18) are five 
or six ; they are of a regular oval form, about three-quarters 
of an inch long and four- sixths broad, of a delicate reddish 
white or brownish tinge, fading into a brownish white at the 
small end, and faintly freckled with palish red, the brownish 
markings sometimes forming a belt there. 
In our wood the Goldfinch is an habitual resident, but is by 
no means so plentiful as “ in the days when we were young ; ” 
for improved agriculture, whose aim is to root out weeds and 
thistles, from which the smaller birds draw much of their 
support, has not tended to their increase. They nestle in 
woods, in orchards, in gardens, and in hedgerows ; sometimes 
in the tops of tall timber-trees. The nest is composed of grass 
and moss, with an external covering of lichens elaborately 
interwoven with thread, twigs, and other substances, and fined 
with wool and hair, the down of various plants, and other 
delicate filaments, and will be ready for the reception of the 
young pair by the middle of April, or thereabouts. The eggs 
(fig. 13) are four or five, about three-fourths of an inch long, 
and half an inch thick, of a bluish-white, or rather pale 
bluish-grey colour, sometimes tinged with brown, and marked 
with a few spots of greyish purple and brown, and occasion- 
ally having a dark streak or two. 
Having traversed about half of the plantation, we reach a 
Spot where the little river issues from a sort of defile and 
passes outside the wood, under the retaining wall which sup- 
ports the pathway. Under the banks of this wall, just on the 
edge of the wood, at the time I write of, Jenny (English) or 
Kitty Ween (as the Scotch say) had built her nest, and in 
trees overhanging it a whole colony of wens made the woods 
re-echo again with their incessant roundelays as they flitted 
from branch to branch, or frisked about among the topmost 
312 
