Birds' Nests, Eggs and Egg-CollectingKearton, Richard
Science
Birds' Nests, Eggs and Egg-Collecting
Kearton, Richard
Birds -- Eggs; Birds -- Great Britain; Birds -- Nests
Many curious positions for rearing a family have been chosen by the
Spotted Fly-catcher, but its nest is generally found in trees which are
trained against walls, barns, tool and summer houses. It is composed
of a diversity of material, and no fixed rule seems to be adhered
to--bents, straws, moss new and old, hairs, feathers, &c. The eggs
number four, five, or even six, of a grey-white spotted with faint
red; sometimes, but rarely, pale blue, unspotted. The ground colour
varies from grey or bluish-white to pea-green, the markings also being
in various shades, clouded, spotted, and blotched with faint red or
reddish-brown.
THE TREE SPARROW.
Holes in pollard and other trees are chosen as desirable situations by
this bird for perpetuating its race, and sometimes in the thatches of
old barns along with the Common House Sparrow. Its nest is very similar
to that of its more widely-distributed and better-known kinsman, viz.,
of hay, dry grass, and straw, with a liberal lining of nice warm
feathers. The eggs generally number four or five, of a grey colour,
thickly spotted with umber-brown or darker grey, sometimes white
with grey spots or blotches, and may be described, like the Common
Sparrow's, as variable.
THE BRAMBLING.
Scandinavia and other countries situated in high latitudes are the
breeding haunts of this little bird, which builds a nest very similar
to the Chaffinch. It is placed fourteen or twenty feet from the
ground, in the fork of a branch shooting out from the trunk of a birch
or spruce fir-tree, and composed of moss, lichens, bark, mixed with
thistle-down, and lined with fine grass and feathers. Its eggs number
from five to seven, similar to those of the Chaffinch, the ground
colour being generally green, and the spots not so dark nor large.
THE WHINCHAT.
The nest of this bird is composed of grass and moss of different kinds,
the stronger on the outside, and the finer forming a lining for the
interior, and is situated on the ground in positions where it is by no
means an easy task for the most veteran collector to find it. It lays
five or six eggs of a delicate bluish-green, rarely speckled or marked
with red-brown.
THE SCOTER.
The most northern counties of Scotland are the nesting-places of this
bird, which gathers together such materials as twigs, grasses, dry
stalks, and leaves, placing them under cover, or in hiding, afforded
by the low-growing shrubs or plants, and lining the whole with down.
The eggs number from six to ten, and are of a pale greyish-buff colour,
sometimes slightly tinged with green.
THE GREY WAGTAIL.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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