LIEUT.-COL. DUTHIE ON NESTING OF BRITISH BIRDS, 141 
this nesting site must to a certain extent determine the sort of struc¬ 
ture which is best adapted to the surroundings and most suitable to 
contain the eggs and shelter the young birds. 
Note the light frame of dry grass suspended in the nettles, the 
home of the Whitethroat, and compare it with the finely-made felted 
nest of the Hedge-Sparrow; the one is the work of a summer visitor, 
the other that of a hardy resident and early breeder. See, again^ 
that exceptionally deep cup of grass and wool woven into the stalks 
of the tall reeds; the wind may blow and the reeds may bend to the 
water’s edge, but the nest of the Reed-Warbler will not upset the eggs 
nor overturn the young brood. The Sedge-Warbler, building on a 
firmer foundation, constructs a shallower nest. The Dabchick, on a 
floating raft of rush leaves and water plants, moored to the bank, sits 
on her eggs regardless of the river’s rise or fall, and the Rooks, 
swinging aloft in their bulky nests laced into the pliant branches of 
the great elms, defy the stormy winds of March. That arch egg- 
stealer, the Magpie, probably judging others by herself, protects her 
own eggs with a screen of twigs and thorns, and thus all the bird 
architects, according to their various crafts, design their homes and 
modify them, if necessary, to suit their several needs. 
A certain similarity may be traced in the design and construction 
of nests built by birds of the same species, yet all differ in a greater 
or less degree in their details. Nests of all the Thrush family are 
composed principally of grass, moss, and mud; the Song Thrush 
moulds the mud separately, forming a smooth cup, as a lining to the 
nest; while the Blackbird and others mix the mud promiscuously 
with the other materials and line with fine grass. 
The clay-houses of the Swallow and Martin differ in exterior 
construction, but the warm lining of grass and feathers is common 
to both, and also to the little Sand Martin, who places her soft 
couch at the end of a long tunnel in a bank. The outward appear¬ 
ance of the domed nests of the Willow Wren and Wood Warbler 
is much the same, but the former is invariably lined with feathers, 
the latter with leaves. 
It is curious that birds building in similar situations and exposed 
to the same circumstances are so different in their tastes and habits. 
For instance. Eagles, Buzzards, and Ravens make nests of sticks, 
and line them with warm materials, while Peregrine Falcons and 
Kestrels found breeding in the same rocks lay their eggs on the bare 
soil. The Wren requires a roof for her home, while the Linnet and 
Goldcrest, brooding in the same bush at the same time, are content 
with open nests. 
Some birds take no care to conceal their nests, others take infinite 
pains to do so. The Swallows build under the eaves of our houses; 
