48 
FALCONIDJE. 
and the nest completed, the female is left alone, and, 
when hatching, will not allow the male bird to visit the 
nest, but, on his approach, rises and drives him with 
screams to a distance. The nest is made very frequently 
in a heath-bush by the edge of some ravine, and is 
composed of sticks with a very slender lining; it is some¬ 
times also formed in one of those places called scars, 
or where there has been a rush on the side of a steep 
hill after a mountain thunder shower : here little or no 
nest is made, and the eggs are merely laid on the bare 
ground, which has been scraped hollow. In a flat or 
level country, some common is generally chosen, and 
the nest is found in a whin or other scrubby bush, some¬ 
times a little way from the ground.” 
The eggs are four or five in number, and though perhaps 
most frequently of a spotless bluish-white, are yet often 
slightly marked with yellowish-brown, mixed with a pur¬ 
plish hue, and in some specimens, with more distinctly- 
defined spots of light brown. To Mr. Hey sham I am 
indebted for specimens from the neighbourhood of Car¬ 
lisle ; and to the Rev. W. D. Fox, for others from the 
fens of Cambridge. 
