File:British birds' eggs and nests - popularly described (1870) (14752070151).jpg

Identifier: britishbirdseggs00atk (find matches)
Title: British birds' eggs and nests : popularly described
Year: 1870 (1870s)
Authors: Atkinson, J. C. (John Christopher), 1814-1900
Subjects: Birds Birds Birds
Publisher: London New York : G. Routledge and Sons
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Smithsonian Libraries

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n adhering totheir choice of a place for nesting in. I knew one case in whichfrom the inconvenient nature of the nest-site selected, one ofthe birds was shot. In a very short space the survivor had pairedagain, and the gun again dissolved the union. The whole processwas repeated five or six times, and the Starlings bred at last in theplace chosen by the original pair. The nest is found in a greatvariety of situations,—in the bowl of a water pipe from the eavesof a house, in a dove-cot, in holes in trees, below the nests in arookery, in holes in old buildings or more recent masonry, betweenthe slates and underdrawing of a roof, in holes in steep high rocks,in chimneys of houses, and the like. It is made, without stint ofmaterials, of straw, roots, grass, and a plentiful lining of feathers.The eggs, four to six in number, vary strangely in size but notin colour, which is of a uniform pale blue. In some districtswhere the Starlmg abounds, they coUect in huge flocks, the young PLATE VII
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Stone Curltw. 2. Golden Plover. 3. Ringed Plover. G. Oysccr-f atelier. 4. Kentisti Plo I.apwin;. KAVEN. 85 with the parents, and may be seen when on the wing like a cloudfrom a great distance.—Ilg. \plate V. 115. ROSE-COLOURED PASTOR—fP^^^r roseus).Rose-coloured Ouzel or Starling.—Merely an accidental visitorto our shores. v.—CORYID^. 116, CHOUGH—(#/^^«72^5 graculus). Cornish Chough, Red-legged Crow, Cornish Daw, CornwallKae, Market-jew Crow, Chauk Daw, Hermit Crow, Cliff Daw,&c.—A bird which occius more sparingly than it used to do. Itsabiding and building place is among the steep rocks which line somany parts of the British coasts. In the Isle of Wight, in Man,on the Cornish shores, at Elamborough, in Berwickshire near St.Abbs Head, it is stiU (or was tiU lately) known to breed.This bird, says Mr. Yarrell, makes a nest of sticks lined withwool and hah-, in the cavities of high cliffs, or in old castles, orchurch towers near the sea; laying four or five eggs of a yel

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