The Gyr Falcon does not build in the British Isles, but in Iceland, Greenland, and the northern districts of Europe and America. The nest is composed of sticks, seaweed, and mosses, and is situated in lofty precipices. The eggs are two in number, mottled nearly all over with pale reddish-brown on a dull white ground. They are larger than those of the Peregrine Falcon, but very similar in shape and colour, as well as in the mode in which the colour is disposed over the surface.
THE FIELDFARE.
A Fieldfare's nest has never, within my personal knowledge, been found in the British Isles, the birds breeding in the more northern parts of Europe, such as Norway and Sweden, in large numbers. They build their nests near to the trunks of spruce trees, employing such materials as sticks and coarse grass, and weeds gathered wet, intermixed with clay, and lined internally with long grass. The eggs number from three to six, somewhat resembling those of the Blackbird or Ring Ouzel.
THE RED-BACKED SHRIKE.
The Red-backed Shrike lays five or six eggs of a pink-white or cream colour, with brown spots predominating at the larger end. Her nest is composed of wool, moss, bents of grass, and hair, and is situated in furze-bushes, whitethorn hedges, &c.
THE CHOUGH.
This bird builds her nest in sea-cliffs, in caves, old ruins, &c., near the sea. It is composed of sticks, lined with a liberal application of wool and hair. Her eggs number five or six of a dirty white colour, spotted and blotched chiefly at the larger end with raw sienna-brown and ash colour.