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. [Illustration: EGGS. 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.