Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 3 (1899).djvu/538

508 to avoid being observed and its curiosity to learn all about the observer. Its croaking note I have especially remarked after the young have left the nest; it is undoubtedly a signal of danger.

I have seen few nests, comparatively speaking, in situ; one, however, that now lies before me, and was taken in this county after the young had left it, is constructed externally of flags, a little dry grass, and a profusion of oak leaves; while the interior, which is of some depth, is lined with very fine dry grasses and a few small oak leaves. The nest itself was placed in some old exposed roots amidst some brushwood in the centre of a small plantation, and was close to that of a bird I have only once met with breeding in Leicestershire—I mean the Red-backed Shrike. A second nest of a similar character, though ragged in appearance, was placed in a hedgerow-bottom, and contained four eggs of the usual olive-brown colour.

Many are the nests I have found of this species—hundreds, I may say—but I do not recollect having noticed any in abnormal situations. Sometimes it is placed very low down, but more often it is built two or three feet above the ground, and it may be noticed amongst nettles and coarse vegetation generally, in brambles, shrubs, whitethorn, gooseberry-bushes—indeed, in a variety of kindred situations; but when I said just now that I did not remember having discovered a nest abnormally placed, I had for the moment forgotten the fact that in the summer of 1894 I came upon one containing five eggs of a beautiful type all but on the ground. It was in a tuft of rushes in the middle of a grass field near to Bala Lake. Perhaps I am not justified in deeming the actual site quite so uncommon as the fact that the nest itself was located right away from the haunts the Whitethroat usually affects for shelter as well as for breeding purposes.

A few summers ago I was indebted for the discovery of not a few of the commoner nests usually to be found low down in hedges and bushes to a couple of Clumber Spaniels. That Clumber Spaniels should have taken to this form of pastime—hunting for little birds' nests—may seem singular, and I can only account for it in this way:—They were in the habit of frequently accompanying me in my roadside rambles, and herein