Birds' Nests, Eggs and Egg-CollectingKearton, Richard
Science
Birds' Nests, Eggs and Egg-Collecting
Kearton, Richard
Birds -- Eggs; Birds -- Great Britain; Birds -- Nests
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.
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