CHIFFCHAFF, Sylvia rufa.

Situation. On or near the ground in hedge-banks; nearly spherical

or oval, with a lateral opening.

Materials. Dead grass, leaves and moss outside; a profusion of feathers in the interior.

Eggs, 5, 6. White, with a few purple-brown specks.

DARTFORD WARBLER, Sylvia provincialis, Temminck.

Situation. Thick furze bushes, about two feet from the ground. Materials. "The nest is composed of dry vegetable stalks, particularly goose-grass, mixed with the tender dead branches of furze, not sufficiently hardened to become prickly: these are put together in a very loose manner, and intermixed very sparingly with wool. In one of the nests was a single partridge's feather. The lining is equally sparing, for it consists only of a few dry stalks of some fine species of Carex, without a single leaf of the plant and only two or three of the panicles. This thin, flimsy structure, which the eye pervades in all parts, much resembles the nest of the whitethroat."-Col. Montagu, Linn. Trans. "I possess eight nests of the Dartford warbler: they all agree with Montagu's description, as far as the materials are concerned, but they are much more compact than he describes them, and not at all like the whitethroat's."-Mr. Bond.

Eggs, 4-6. "The eggs are also similar to those of Sylvia cinerea (the whitethroat), but rather less, weighing only 22 grains; like the eggs of that species they possess a slight tinge of green; they are fully speckled all over with olivaceous-brown and cinereous on a greenish white ground, the markings becoming more dense and forming a zone at the larger end."-Col. Montagu, Linn. Trans. "I have about twenty eggs of the Dartford warbler, and they are more like those of the lesser whitethroat."-Mr. Bond.

GoldenCrestED REGULUS, Regulus cristatus.

Situation. Suspended from the horizontal twigs of the spruce fir or yew, rarely of other trees: several instances are recorded of this bird breeding twice in the same nest (see Zoɔl. 871).

Materials. Moss and lichen, lined with feathers; a very beautiful and compact structure. Mr. Selby, as I think erroneously, described this nest as spherical: I should call it a hollow hemisphere; in this not differing from the ordinary form of compact nests.

Eggs, 6, 7. Rosy white or very pale brown, unspotted.

GREAT TITMOUSE, Parus major.

Situation. Holes in the trunks of trees, or of walls: on the former Mr. Selby has this observation, "The excavation is made by the bird

itself, which I have seen busily engaged in this task, and have admired the rapidity with which the work advanced." Mr. Hawkins relates (Zool. 3503) a singular instance of this bird building its nest in a drinking-cup.

Materials. Moss, feathers, hair.

Eggs, 6-12. White, spotted with red-brown.

BLUE TITMOUSE, Parus cæruleus.

Situation.

Holes in trees or walls.

Materials. Moss, feathers, hair.

Eggs, 7-9. White, spotted with red-brown at the larger end.
CRESTED TITMOUSE, Parus cristatus.

"At Inverness, on the 23rd June, I was shown some specimens of the crested titmouse, with some unblown eggs, taken a few days before from the pine woods of Strathspey, where they are by no means uncommon. The boy who took the eggs told me they were always to be found in the hole of a tree highish up; he took the female with the nest and five eggs. The eggs are the size of those of the blue titmouse, and like them in colour, with the addition of being more mottled at the larger end."- Sir William Milner (Zool. 2017). "I have Scotch specimens in which the spots are larger and brighter than in those of the blue titmouse."-Mr. Bond.

COLE TITMOUSE, Parus ater.

Situation. In the ground in banks this bird takes possession of the deserted hole of a rat, mole, or perhaps mouse; sometimes, but not so often, in the trunks of a tree. "I once found one on the branch of a fir, close to the bole, very like a longtailed tit's, but much rounder.”— Mr. Bond.

Materials. Moss, wool, hair.

Eggs, 6-9. White, spotted with red-brown.
MARSH TITMOUSE, Parus palustris.

Situation. Holes of trees, especially willows, placing the nest very deep. Mr. Gurney mentions one built in a rat's hole (Zool. 3503). They often build in holes in banks.

Materials. Moss, the down of the ripe catkins of the willow, and the fur of rabbits, if they can procure it.

Eggs, 6-8.

larger end.

White, with red-brown spots, more numerous at the

Materials. Lichens and wool, lined with feathers. The nest of this strange-looking little bird is totally different from that of any other

species with which it is associated by naturalists; it is one of the most beautiful and interesting structures that the student of birds has ever discovered its size is remarkably large for the bird, its shape oval, its position perpendicular; the whole structure is strongly and compactly united by the interweaving of wool with the moss and lichens; on one side is a circular hole through which the bird enters, but this is scarcely visible when she is absent, so that I am inclined to believe she partially closes this opening on leaving the nest, for the sake of security. Mr. Selby makes an assertion with respect to this nest that I have never been able to verify. "A small hole," says this distinguished naturalist, "is left on two opposite sides of the nest, not only for ingress and egress, but also to prevent the bird, during incubation, from being incommoded by its long tail, which then projects through one of the orifices." Mr. Bond tells me he does not think there are ever two holes.

Eggs, 7-9. White, delicately tinged with rose-colour until blown, when they lose this hue; there are some very minute red-brown specks about the larger end.

BEARDED TITMOUSE, Calomophilus biarmicus.

Situation. Large beds of reeds in Hickling and Hornsey Broads, in Norfolk.

Materials. "The nest is composed, on the outside, of dead leaves of the reed and sedge, intermixed with a few pieces of grass, and lined with the top of the reed. It is generally placed in a tuft of coarse grass or rushes near the ground, on the margin of the dykes, in the fen; sometimes fixed among the reeds that are broken down, but never suspended between the stems."-Mr. Hoy.

Eggs, 4-6. White, with pale red-brown lines.

This bird appears to me to have no relationship to the tits, with which it is always associated: in structure, nest and eggs it more nearly resembles the buntings.

PIED WAGTAIL, Motacilla Yarrelii.

Situation. Holes in stone walls, heaps of stones by road-sides, quarries, roofs of porticos, pollard willows at the top of the trunk. Some remarkable situations for the nests of wagtails are recorded in the Zoologist': I will cite one. "Under a switch of the Ayrshire Railway, at the Lochwinnoch Station, a pied wagtail built her nest and sat on five eggs, although there was scarcely an hour in the day without trains passing over it, and the whole of the engine and carriages within two or three inches of the nest."-Zool. 726.

Materials. Moss, fibrous roots, grasses, wool, horsehair.
Eggs, 4-6. Gray, speckled with light umber-brown.

GRAY WAGTAIL, Motacilla boarula.

Situation. Shelves of rocks, under stones in quarries and on banks.

Materials. Moss, bents and horsehair.

Eggs, 5, 6. Gray, blotched with ochre-gray.

RAY'S WAGTAIL, Motacilla campestris. This bird is better known among collectors by the names of "Yellow Wagtail" and "Motacilla flava," both which names are considered properly to belong to another European species which occasionally visits this country, but I think does not breed here.

Situation. On the ground.

Materials. Hay, bents, fibrous roots, lined with horsehair and cow's hair.

Eggs, 4, 5. Pale umber-brown, with darker spots.

TREE PIPIT, Anthus arboreus. This species is confounded with the following, under the name of "Titlark": the name should be confined to the Meadow Pipit.

Situation. On the ground, under shelter of a loose turf or tuft of

grass.

Materials. Moss, fibrous roots, wool, grasses, lined with finer grasses and hair.

Eggs, 4-6. Probably more variable than those of any other British bird; sometimes pale brown, thickly dotted with deep brown spots, mostly forming a zone at the larger end; sometimes deep brick-red colour, thickly sprinkled with dots of a deeper shade; at other times pale or reddish, marked with spots and streaks, like the eggs of the buntings; others closely resemble the red variety of the egg of the blackcap, and others again are very similar to the egg of the house sparrow.

MEADOW PIPIT, Anthus pratensis.

Situation. On the ground, protected, if possible, by a loose turf or tuft of grass.

Materials. Bents and the seed-stalk of Cardamine pratensis, lined with very slender bents or horsehair.

Eggs, 5, 6. Pale brown, freckled with spots of a deeper colour: vary but little.

ROCK PIPIT, Anthus obscurus.

Situation. Crevices or ledges of sea-cliffs.

Materials. Coarse bents and sea-weed on the outside; finer ones and sometimes horsehair for the lining.

Eggs, 4, 5. Gray, spotted with red-brown; the spots crowded at the larger end, like those of the meadow pipit.

SKYLARK, Alauda arvensis.

Situation. On the ground amidst corn and standing grass.

Materials. The dried stems of a variety of herbaceous plants outside; lined with very fine grasses.

Eggs, 4, 5. Dirty white, tinged with green, and spotted with umberbrown, generally forming a zone at the larger end.

WOOD LARK, Alauda arborea.

Situation. On the ground, under a tuft of grass or any low plant. Materials. Grasses and bents, the coarser ones outside, the finer used for lining.

Eggs, 4, 5. White, thickly speckled with reddish brown; rarely zoned at the larger end.

SHORE LARK, Alauda alpestris.

The Hon. T. L. Powys mentions (Zool. 3707) the very remarkable fact of the shore lark breeding in Devonshire. "On the 12th of July, 1851, my friend, Mr. W. W. Buller, found a nest of the shore lark near Exmouth, South Devon, among some bent grass close to the sea, and containing four eggs. The eggs were very much like those of the wood lark. The hen bird was caught on the nest, and is in my friend's possession."

COMMON BUNTING, Emberiza miliaria.

Situation. Among coarse grass, near to or on the ground.

Materials. Straw, coarse hay, outside; lined with fibrous roots and sometimes with horsehair.

Eggs, 4-6. Gray, tinged with yellow, with red-brown and ashcoloured spots and streaks.

BLACKHEADED BUNTING, Emberiza Schoeniclus.

Situation. On the ground, under a tussock of Carex, Aira cæspitosa, or some coarser grass, always in moist swampy localities.

Materials. Moss, dried grass, lined with fine grass and horsehair. Eggs, 4, 5. Gray, with a slightly rosy tinge, spotted, streaked and veined with purple-brown. "The eggs much resemble those of a chaffinch."-Col. Montagu.

YELLOW HAMMER, Emberiza citrinella.

Situation. On or near the ground, commonly under shelter of overhanging grasses. I have on three occasions found the nest of this bird in cart-ruts seldom used; in two instances the parent had perished by the passage of a waggon laden with hay.

Materials. The decayed or dried leaves of grass form the exterior of the nest, then follows a layer of finer grasses, and the whole is lined with horsehair.