Thick furze-bushes are the places chosen by this bird for its nesting-place on the commons of Kent and Surrey. The materials used are dead branches of furze, moss, and dry grass mixed with wool, and lined inside with finer dead grasses, the whole structure being loosely put together. The eggs number four or five, and are of a greenish, sometimes buffish, white ground speckled all over with dark or olive-brown and cinereous, which become more dense at the larger end and form a zone. The eggs are at times more numerously spotted than at others; then the markings are not so large.
THE POCHARD.
This bird breeds in the east and south of England, also in Scotland and Ireland, although it is much less numerous during the summer than the winter months. The position of its nest is similar to that of the Wild Duck, also the materials of which it is composed (dead grass and sedge, as well as down when the bird has begun to sit). Its eggs number from seven even to thirteen, but ten is the usual number laid, of a greenish-buff colour.
THE BLACK REDSTART.
This well-known visitor breeds in many parts of Europe and North Africa, building a nest very similar to that of the Robin, composed chiefly of twigs, straw, dried grass, &c., and situated in holes of walls and other positions similar to the above-mentioned bird. Five is the usual number of eggs; however, four only, or as many as six, are found, generally pure white in colour, occasionally tinged faintly with brown. Cases are recorded where they have been found spotted at the larger end with minute brown spots.
