88 
MERULIDiE. 
approached the sea-coast, and at the same time the 
northern limit of a beaten road, we discovered a nest, 
but to our great disappointment it had young ones. 
Having almost reached the boundary of our woodland 
rambles for the present, we spent the whole of the follow¬ 
ing day in exploring the beautiful woods by which we 
were on all sides surrounded. We found a second nest, 
but the eggs were again hatched. It was here, too, that 
we saw the brambling, accompanied by its full grown 
young ones. 
The nest of the Redwing, as far as I can speak from 
my own experience in Norway, is placed singly, like 
those of the thrush and blackbird, in the centre of a 
thorn or other thick bush. It is similar to those of the 
blackbird, fieldfare, and ring ouzel. Outwardly, it is 
formed of moss, roots, and dry grass; inwardly, it is 
cemented with clay, and again lined with finer grass. 
The doubt which for a long time existed with regard to 
the eggs of the Redwing has been entirely removed of late. 
Collectors have received them in abundance from Iceland 
through Mr. Proctor, of the Durham University Museum, 
and from Norway through Mr. Dann. M. Nilsson, to 
whom as a Swedish naturalist much deference was due, 
has described the eggs as blue spotted with black. Mr. 
Yarrell had adopted this description in the first edition of 
his most useful work, and inadvertently repeated it in the 
second, and I must say, that my own prepossessions were 
greatly in favour of a blue egg, like that of our common 
thrush, and that I felt something like disappointment 
when it was ascertained to be otherwise. 
Mr. Proctor, who has taken the eggs of the Redwing for 
several summers in Iceland, has kindly sent me the fol¬ 
lowing very interesting information. “ In Iceland, where 
there is scarcely any wood except the birch-tree, and 
