Page:The Zoologist, 3rd series, vol 1 (1877).djvu/224

198 finer bits, and was in the side of one of a great number of small bush-covered mounds, lying near together in quite a dry place. At first it was easy to see, but as more eggs were laid it was carefully and effectually concealed by matting the grass all round it. We took it on June 11th, when it had six eggs, as we were going to Jerkin for a few days, and were afraid to leave it for the chance of another egg. The old bird was a great skulker; we tried a surprise many times, but could never catch a glimpse of her, and only heard her once.

Redstart. Ruticilla phœnicura.—Wrigley took the first nest on June 12th, from a hole in a birch-tree near Jerkin; there were seven fresh eggs. The day the Buzzard was taken, June 15th, I was completely deceived, when, scrambling through the birchwood, a little bird started from under my feet, and popped away with a flirt of a red tail: hurrah, a Blue-throat! excited search, and grand discovery of five blue eggs in a feather-lined nest under a tree-root. Melancholic remembrance that more birds than Bluethroats have red tails. From a hole in a tree one day I extracted a dead mouse with a Redstart's egg sticking to it; retribution would appear to have overtaken a robber here.

Whinchat. Pratincola rubetra.—Only one observed, and that a male, shot between Fokstuen and Dombaas, May 31st.

Wheatear. Saxicola œnanthe.—First seen at Fokstuen, May 30th. Numbers frequented the low hills round about.

Willow Warbler. Phylloscopus trochilus.—Only one was observed: shot on Fokstuen Marsh, June 4th.

Northern Marsh Titmouse. Parus borealis.—A nest of this species was taken in the middle of a thick pine-wood at Grut on May 15th. A small round hole was bored in a rotten tree-stump about four feet from the ground, and six fresh eggs lay about six inches deep in the interior. The nest was made of thin strips of bark, and the eggs, as is the custom with many of the Tits, notably P. major, were covered.

White Wagtail. Motacilla alba.—Seen about all the villages and station-houses from Nervig onwards, but either they had not begun to build or we couldn't find the nests. One nest of five eggs was taken from a crevice in the timbers of Fokstuen station on June 10th. It was composed of hay and moss outside, thickly lined with finer bits of hay and Lemming-fur. Another was stuck on the extreme end of a projecting timber in an old boat-house; it was