THE LAPWING.
The Lapwing, or Green Plover, makes a very simple nest, only scratching a hole and lining it with bent or short grass. She generally makes it on a little knoll, so that it may be out of danger of being deluged, as her home is generally in swampy marshy land. She lays four eggs of a dirty-green ground, blotched all over with dark brown spots, and the colour harmonises so well with the ground, that it is sometimes very difficult for the collector to see them even when looking close to where they are.
THE BARN OWL.
The Barn Owl lays two eggs at a time, that is, lays two and hatches them, and lays again, even to a second and third time, before the first have flown. They are white and unspotted. She makes a very slight nest of sticks, hay, and sometimes of her own cast-off feathers. She selects barns, old ruins, hollow trees, and crevices of rocks, overshadowed by ivy or creeping plants.
THE CROSS-BILL.
This bird lays four or five eggs of a white colour, tinged with pale blue, resembling the colour of skim-milk, and speckled with red, but only very sparingly. Her nest is made of twigs, grass, and sometimes lined with a few long hairs. She builds mostly among the branches of the Scotch fir, the nest being generally close to the boll or stem.