THE SWIFT.
The Swift is the garret-lodger of nature, for she builds her nest in the very highest crevices and holes in steeples, towers, chimneys, rocks, and occasionally, like the Martin, under the eaves of inhabited houses. Her nest is composed of hay, straw, and feathers, in somewhat sparse quantities, which she appears to solder or cement to the stone and to each other with a glutinous substance elaborated by glands peculiar to certain birds of this genus. She lays two or three white unspotted eggs of a rather long oval shape.
THE BLACK-HEADED GULL.
This bird generally lays three eggs, four being occasionally found, of a pale olive-green or pale umber-brown, blotched with black-brown or dark grey; however, they are very variable in ground colour, sometimes being of a bluish-white, unspotted. The nest is loosely built of the tops of sedges, reeds, or rushes, and is placed about a foot or more above the surface of the water or swamp. She is fond of low marshy districts, such as Norfolk, Kent, Essex, and some parts of Lincolnshire, and I have frequently found her round the edges of high mountain tarns in the Pennine range.
THE SNIPE.
The Snipe generally lays four eggs, rather large for her size, of a grey colour, tinged with yellow or olive-green, and blotched with umber or rusty brown, of two shades, more thickly towards the larger end. The eggs are sharply pointed, and invariably placed with the small ends together in the middle. Her nest is placed in a slight depression in the earth, which she lines with withered grass, rushes, or dried heather. It is situated in long grass, rushes, or amongst heather, near to tarns, swamps, bogs, and other places suitable to the habitat of the bird.