BLACE>1TEAT)ET) BTHN’TOTG-. 
85 
the water which the bird frequents, and occasionally in the 
lower part of some low hush or stump, a few inches above 
the ground; sometimes it is said to have been met with in 
a furze or gorse bush, at a considerable distance from water; 
and Mr. Hewitson relates that he has, though rarely, found 
it at an elevation of two feet or more above the water, and 
supported on a mass of fallen reeds. It is composed of grasses 
and fragments of rushes, lined with the down of the reed, a 
little moss, or finer grass, or hair. 
The eggs are four or five in number, of a pale purple 
brown, greenish, or brownish, or purple white colour, streaked 
and strongly spotted in a pleasing manner with a darker shade 
of the same; sometimes the end is delicately marked with a 
texture of fine lines. They are laid about the first week in 
May, and occasionally a second brood is produced in July. 
They are oblong, and taper at each end. 
Male; length, six inches and a quarter; bill, dusky brown 
above, paler beneath; a white streak passes from its corner 
backwards, meeting the white collar presently mentioned; iris, 
dark brown; when excited, the bird raises up the feathers on 
the head. Head on the crown and sides velvet black, bounded 
by a collar of white, which descends to the breast; the black 
feathers assume reddish brown tips after the autumnal moult, , 
until the following spring, and the collar becomes greyish 
white. Neck on the back and nape, black, excepting the white 
collar, and broadly edged with rusty brown after the autumnal 
moult, all the colours being then obscured together; chin and 
throat, black, ending in a point tending downwards; after the 
autumnal moult the feathers are tipped with greyish brown 
until the following spring; breast, dull bluish grey white, 
darkest on the sides, where it is also streaked with brown. 
The feathers of the back are blackish, bordered with rufous 
brown, interspersed with grey, which latter colour prevails^ 
lower down, the shafts of the feathers being blackish. 
The wings expand to the width of nine inches and three 
quarters; greater and lesser wing coverts, dusky black, each 
feather being broadly margined with rufous; primaries, dusky 
black, margined with rufous; the first four quill feathers are 
nearly equal in length, but the second is rather the longest, 
the fifth, according to Yarrell, shorter than the first, but 
Macgillivray says that they are equal; secondaries, dusky 
black; tertiaries, dusky black on the inner web, reddish on 
the outer, and margined with white. The tail is rather long 
