MISSTCT TTTRUSH. 
109 
Shy, too, as the bird is at other times, in its nidification it 
is not deterred from any appropriate situation by the near 
propinquity of a house, even where persons are constantly 
passing and repassing. This has been noticed in repeated 
instances, and has occurred close to my own residence of 
Nafferton Vicarage, within a dozen yards of the house, and 
with hardly any attempt at concealment. The same tree will 
be often returned to year after year, if the birds be undisturbed, 
and Frederick Bond, Esq., of Kingsbury, has known the same 
nest used twice in the same season. They will suffer other 
species to build near to them, so close as within a foot 
distance, and that without any molestation even during the 
time of incubation, when to those who casually approach their 
nest they display unqualified hostility. 
The eggs are from three or four to five in number, of a 
greenish or reddish white colour, spotted irregularly with 
reddish brown or purple red: they vary in size as well as in 
colour. 
Two broods are produced in the year, and the young of 
the first sometimes unite with those of the second in one 
flock. 
Male; weight, nearly five ounces; length, eleven inches and 
a half; bill, dark brown, the upper mandible pale yellow at 
its base—from its base a cream-coloured streak goes over the 
eye; iris, dark brown. Head on the sides, yellowish white, 
on the crown, neck on the back, and nape, greyish olive 
brown; chin, throat, and breast, pale yellowish white, each 
feather tipped with black, the throat only faintly so; on the 
upper part the spots are triangular, on the middle and sides 
oblong and transverse, and lower down smaller; back, greyish 
olive brown, lighter on the lower part. 
The wings, of eighteen quills, which extend to half the 
length of the tail, and expand to the width of one foot seven 
inches and a half, have the first very small, the second about 
equal to the fifth, the third and fourth the longest, and 
equal to each other in length; underneath, the wings are 
grey; greater and lesser wing coverts, deep greyish brown, 
edged with a lighter shade; primaries, secondaries, and tertiaries, 
deep brown, narrowly margined with greyish yellow on the 
outer webs; greater and lesser under wing coverts, greyish 
white, much observable when the bird is on the wing. The 
tail, which is rather long and slightly rounded, is greyish 
brown, the feathers slightly margined on the outer edge with 
