THE PIED FLY-CATCHER.
This bird seems to resort annually to the same locality, and use the same nest year after year, which is composed of moss, grass, bents, feathers, hair, &c., and is situated in holes in pollard-trees and walls. She lays four or five eggs, of a pale blue, which might not erroneously be described as greenish-blue, unspotted.
THE TREE PIPIT.
The Tree Pipit's nest is always on the ground, beneath the shelter of a tuft of grass or low bush, and is made of fibrous roots, moss, and wool, lined with fine grass and hair. The eggs number from four to six, and are so variable in colour that verbal description is almost baffled in attempting to convey an impression of what they are like. Some are purple-red, thickly sprinkled with spots of a deeper shade; others of a yellowish-white, spotted and sprinkled all over with greyish-brown, like a Sparrow's egg.
THE DUNLIN.
The nesting-place of the Dunlin is on the sea-beach, among the shingle, heather, or long grass at the mouth of rivers, on moors and fells in the North of England, Wales, Ireland, Scotland, the Orkney Islands, and the Hebrides. The nest is composed of a meagre supply of bents and straws, and the eggs number four, elegantly shaped and beautifully coloured, though very variable in ground colour, sometimes of a bluish-white, blotched all over with umber-brown, whilst others are of a clear light green, richly spotted with light brown. The hen sits closely.
THE SKY-LARK.