16 
SKY T/ATtK. 
eggs have been known to be laid. Mr. Jesse says that if 
some of the eggs be removed, and only one or two be leR, 
the bird will continue to lay for a long time, but that if 
three be left she will sit. 
The nest is placed in a hollow scraped in the ground, with 
or without the fortuitous shelter of a clod of earth or tuft of 
herbage. It is placed in various situations, and is made of 
grasses, and a few chance leaves, the coarser outside, the finer 
on the inner part. The male bird appears to bring the 
materials to the spot, where the female is engaged in arranging 
them. The young are hatched in about a fortnight: they 
do not quit the nest until fully fledged, but return to it bo 
roost at night for some time after they have left it. 
The eggs, three, four, or five in number, vary much both 
in form and colour; some are of a greyish white colour, with 
a tinge of purple or green, and freckled and mottled nearly 
all over with a darker shade of grey, greyish brown, or brown; 
others are of a deep sombre colour, and in some the chief 
part of the colour is concentrated at the larger end, either 
wholly or only partially around it. They are usually placed 
w;th their smaller ends towards the centre. 
Male; length, seven inches and a quarter to seven and a 
half; bill, dark brown above, and pale yellowish brown at the 
base of the lower part; iris, dark brown: over it is a pale 
yellowish brown streak. The feathers at the base of the bill 
are tipped with bristles; a sort of crest is frequently raised 
on the top of the head, the feathers there being rather long; 
head on the sides, pale yellowish brown, on the crown, dark 
brown, the edges of the feathers paler than the rest; neck on 
the back, and nape, brown of three shades, the centre of the 
feathers, along the shaft, being the darkest, and the margin 
the lightest part; chin, pale yellowish brown; throat and 
breast on the upper part, the same, with a tinge of rufous, 
aid spotted with small streaks of dark brown; underneath, 
the latter is pale yellowish white; back, as the nape. 
The wings, which expand to nearly the width of one foot 
three inches, extend to within an inch and a quarter of the 
end of the tail; the first feather is extremely short, the second 
shorter than the third, which is the longest in the wing, the 
fourth almost the same length; greater and lesser wing coverts, 
brown, with broad light brown edges; primaries, dusky brown, 
the second with the outer web brownish white, the others 
edged with the same; secondaries, dusky brown, tipped with 
