BTTimtfG. 
31 
ordinarily only a ‘chuck’ or ‘chit,’ which, quickly run together 
and then protracted, form the staple of its song: it is heard 
at a considerable distance. 
Nidification commences towards the end of April. 
The nest, which is begun and finished in the course of 
this month, is usually placed on the ground, or only slightly 
raised above it by coarse herbage, and frequently on a bank, 
sometimes in a bush, or under a hedge, among the grass, is 
composed of small roots and dry straws and grasses, lined 
with smaller grasses, and small fibrous roots, moss, and hair, 
rather neatly, but not finely compacted. It is somewhat 
large and thick, but shallow inside. 
The eggs, generally four, or rarely five or six, in number, 
and of an obtuse oval shape, are of a whitish colour, with a 
slight tinge of grey or red, sometimes pale purple reel, streaked 
and spotted in a very irregular manner with dark purple 
brown and pale greyish purple. They differ a good deal in 
size, shape, and colour. In some the ground-colour is nearly 
white. 
Male; weight, nearly two ounces; length, rather more than 
seven inches and a quarter, or seven and a half; Mr. Mac- 
gillivray has met with one over eight inches long; bill, short 
and thick, the upper one dark brown, excepting on the edges 
towards the base, which, as also the under one,, is pale yellow 
brown. Its shape, as in the rest of the family, is very peculiar 
—the upper part is smaller than the lower, and fits closely 
into it when shut. Iris, dark brown; over it is a faint line 
of pale yellowish grey; head, crown, and neck on the back, 
pale yellowish brown, inclining to olive-colour, streaked with 
darker brown on the centre of each feather; in front, the 
latter has each feather tipped with a triangular spot of 
brownish black, the spots being larger and darker along a 
line on each side; nape, as the back of the neck. Chin, 
throat, and breast, dull whitish or yellowish brown—the latter 
colour in winter, the former in summer—marked on the sides 
with streaked spots of dark brown, which are more lengthened 
lower down; the shafts of the feathers being dusky; a gorget 
of small brown spots passes from the base of the bill, and 
so spreads over the breast. Back, pale yellowish brown, 
streaked with darker brown on the centre of each feather 
along the shaft; in autumn it assumes an olive tint. 
The wings expand to the width of one foot one inch. In 
Mr. Macgillivray’s specimen, spoken of above, the wings ex- 
