The highest mountain-tops of Scotland and the Shetlands are patronised by the Snow Bunting during the breeding season. It makes its nest of withered grass, fine roots, and moss, and lines it with down, wool, hair, or feathers, and situates it in crevices of rock or amongst loose stones. The eggs number from four to eight, but five or six are generally found, varying from dull white to very light greenish-blue in ground colour, spotted and blotched with reddish-brown, and occasionally streaked with blackish-brown. The markings are most numerous at the larger end, and the underlying ones are of a light grey and pale brown.
EGGS.
1. Hoopoe. 2. Red-necked Phalarope. 3. Crested Tit.
4. Common Tern. 5. Red-throated Diver.
6. Black-throated Diver. 7. Lesser Tern.
8. Montagu's Harrier. 9. Sedge Warbler.
THE SPOTTED CRAKE.
The eastern and southern counties of England are the favourite breeding resorts of this somewhat uncommon bird. Its nest is large, and made of reeds, sedges, rushes, and other materials growing in swamps, and is placed on a tussock or amongst reeds, the base generally resting in water. The eggs number eight to ten, and even twelve, and vary in ground colour from white to buff, the intermediate stages including olive and greenish-white. They are spotted with reddish-brown of varying shades, and grey.
THE RED-THROATED DIVER.