Part 12

THE JACK SNIPE.

According to some of the very best authorities on British ornithology, the Jack Snipe does not breed in these islands although an occasional nest is said to have been found. The bird is only a winter migrant, and breeds in the neighbourhood of St. Petersburg. The eggs are four in number, of a yellowish olive colour, spotted with two shades of brown, especially on the larger end.

THE GYR FALCON.

The Gyr Falcon does not build in the British Isles, but in Iceland, Greenland, and the northern districts of Europe and America. The nest is composed of sticks, seaweed, and mosses, and is situated in lofty precipices. The eggs are two in number, mottled nearly all over with pale reddish-brown on a dull white ground. They are larger than those of the Peregrine Falcon, but very similar in shape and colour, as well as in the mode in which the colour is disposed over the surface.

THE FIELDFARE.

A Fieldfare's nest has never, within my personal knowledge, been found in the British Isles, the birds breeding in the more northern parts of Europe, such as Norway and Sweden, in large numbers. They build their nests near to the trunks of spruce trees, employing such materials as sticks and coarse grass, and weeds gathered wet, intermixed with clay, and lined internally with long grass. The eggs number from three to six, somewhat resembling those of the Blackbird or Ring Ouzel.

THE RED-BACKED SHRIKE.

The Red-backed Shrike lays five or six eggs of a pink-white or cream colour, with brown spots predominating at the larger end. Her nest is composed of wool, moss, bents of grass, and hair, and is situated in furze-bushes, whitethorn hedges, &c.

THE CHOUGH.

This bird builds her nest in sea-cliffs, in caves, old ruins, &c., near the sea. It is composed of sticks, lined with a liberal application of wool and hair. Her eggs number five or six of a dirty white colour, spotted and blotched chiefly at the larger end with raw sienna-brown and ash colour.

1. Ring Ouzel. 2. Kentish Plover. 3. Buzzard. 4. Cirl Bunting. 5. Hawfinch. 6. Stock Dove. 7. Dartford Warbler. 8. Pochard. 9. Black Redstart. ]

THE PUFFIN.

Lays one grey-coloured egg marked with indistinct spots of pale brown; the nest is generally minus materials, so the egg is placed on the bare earth at the extremity of a burrow or fissure in a sea cliff. She often adopts a rabbit-burrow if it is situated in the immediate neighbourhood of the sea, and should the original owner or excavator be bold enough to dispute the right of proprietorship, this remarkable bird is not at all indisposed to do battle for possession of the situation her fancy has selected as a desirable place in which to carry out the duties imposed by Nature's law for the perpetuation of the species.

In the absence of a suitable cranny or rift in the rock, or the accommodation usually afforded by the presence of rabbits, the bird will set to work and excavate a hole sometimes as much as three feet deep, sticking to her task with such assiduity as often to endanger her safety from capture.

It seems, however, that she takes great care that whatever place is adopted for her nest it shall not be reached by even the highest tide. The nest of the Puffin is found in great numbers in the Isle of Wight, Puffin Island, Scilly Islands, Isle of Anglesea, and many islands on the coast of Scotland. The parent bird cannot be induced to leave her nest except by force, sitting very closely, and determinedly defending it with her singularly constructed and formidable beak, with which she bites most severely.

THE RING OUZEL.

The mountainous districts of the North of England and Scotland are the favourite nesting-places of this bird, which seems most at home in lonely secluded districts. It has often struck me that it is to this bird alone the mountain ash owes its existence high up in nearly every little mountain valley where no other tree is to be seen, the Ring Ouzel eating the berries and dropping the seed in all sorts of out-of-the-way nooks and corners. The situation of the nest, its materials and structure, also the eggs of the Ring Ouzel and Blackbird, differ but little, and I have often had a difficulty in determining the rightful owner of a nest, until the parent bird has been watched on or off. The nest is composed of coarse grass, moss, and mud, with an inner lining of finer grass, and is generally situated in clefts of rock, steep banks, or old walls, sometimes quite on the ground. The eggs number four or five, of a dull bluish-green, freckled or blotched with reddish-brown, markings generally larger and fewer than those of the Blackbird.

THE KENTISH PLOVER.

No trouble is taken by this bird in nest-building, simply depositing its eggs in some depression or hollow of the sand or shingle on the southern coasts of England, principally Kent and Sussex. The eggs number four, and are of a cream, stone, or pale testaceous-brown colour, streaked and spotted with black.

THE BUZZARD.

The Buzzard sometimes builds a nest of sticks, hay, leaves, and wool; at others adopts a crow's nest in some moderately high tree. Her eggs number two, three, and even four, and are of a dingy white; sometimes this colour alone, and at others spotted and blotched at the larger end with red-brown.

THE CIRL BUNTING.

Some low bush or furze is generally adopted by this bird for its nesting-place. The nest is composed of dry grass, roots, and moss, with generally an inner lining of hair, but sometimes without either moss or hair. The eggs number four or five, of a dull bluish or cinereous white with irregular streaks of dark brown, often terminating in a spot at one end.

THE HAWFINCH.

The Hawfinch builds in various kinds of trees and at various heights; sometimes its nest is found quite exposed in a whitethorn bush, or on the horizontal branch of an oak. It is built of twigs, &c., intermixed with lichens, and interlined with fine fibrous roots and hair. Her eggs number from four to six, of a pale olive-green colour, irregularly streaked with dusky grey and spotted with black. The ground colour is variable, being sometimes of a buffish hue.

THE STOCK DOVE.

Clefts in rocks, rabbit-holes, cavities in the trunks of trees, and often on the ground beneath thick furze-bushes which are next door to waterproof on account of their thickness, are the situations chosen by the Stock Dove. Very little trouble is taken with the nest, which merely consists of a few twigs and roots. The eggs only number two, of a pure shining white.

THE DARTFORD WARBLER.