Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 3 (1899).djvu/231

Rh However, the most sure and effective way of discovering the nests of many of our spring migrants is to note the exact spot of a district they frequent on their arrival; there or thereabouts—unless the halt, as in the case of the Wheatear, is destined to be merely temporary—you may generally rely on meeting with them two or three weeks later. I took a clutch of seven beautiful eggs on May 18th, 1893, under circumstances which will serve by their narration a twofold purpose, viz. to adorn my story and point a moral.

I had noticed a pair of Whinchats frequenting a broken straggling hedgerow on their arrival just a month previously, and had also remarked that an artificial cutting or trench, overgrown with rank herbage, ran alongside of it. The movements of the birds showed pretty plainly that they had come to stay, so, merely jotting down in my note-book a memorandum as to the species, locality, and date, I troubled no more about the matter until the morning I removed their eggs to my cabinet. I have merely related the above as evidence of what can be done by a little intelligent observation in the early days of spring. I would also impress upon all those who tread the paths of ornithology the infinite value of learning the song of each different bird; many and many a time has a ripple of melody betrayed the fact of a nest in my vicinity when I had little suspected it. Again, it is of untold advantage to have at your fingers' ends the different haunts affected by the different species for nesting purposes, and the actual sites usually selected by them. Moreover, it is not probable that your eye will see every nest when you are hunting a hedge, or bank, or bushes, or the brushwood and undergrowth of plantations and woods—far from it; though the possession of a stout walking-stick, discreetly used, will frequently make up for any ocular shortcomings.

The eggs of the Whinchat vary in number from five to seven, but, as has been already intimated, six is a favourite clutch. Some are inclined to rotundity, others are elongated; while their ground colour is of a greenish-blue type, and occasionally exhibits a polished appearance, more especially when the eggs have been incubated for any length of time. Sometimes they are without the wreath of brownish frecklings round the larger end, but in most series this addition to their beauty is, I have reason to