14 Mr. Thompson on the Birds of Ireland. 



That a single bird or pair of redbreasts have generally a 

 particular beat or range I have had abundant evidence, (vide 

 Dovaston in Mag. Nat. Hist. vol. vi. p. 3,) as also that they 

 very frequently keep within it as spring advances, instead 

 of retiring to the thickest woods to nestle as described by 

 many authors. Within towns they have been known to me 

 as frequenting a certain quarter throughout the year. For 

 two seasons this occurred in our own office-houses at Belfast, 

 and in both two broods were reared. In one instance the 

 nest was placed on the top of a wall supporting the roof of 

 the gateway, and in the other on the same part of the side- 

 wall of a three-story building, their only approach to it being 

 through small apertures, about two inches in diameter, that 

 were cut in trap-doors on the first and second floors to admit 

 the rope attached to a pulley. Perched on the neighbouring 

 buildings these birds gave forth their song, and for about the 

 latter half of the month of October 1831, when the days were 

 very fine and bright, one regularly frequented the stable, and 

 sang when perched upon the stalls without being in any de- 

 gree disturbed by the general business of the place going for- 

 ward, even within two or three feet of his station. 



A pair of redbreasts that were assiduously watched during 

 their nidification in the conservatory attached to the town- 

 house of an acquaintance, were one morning found in great 

 consternation, produced, as it turned out, by the nest having 

 been taken possession of by a bat, which they eventually com- 

 pelled to change his quarters. 



Four particularly noted instances of the redbreast building 

 within doors near Belfast in the summer of 1833 here follow. 

 In all of them (and the country house already alluded to may be 

 added) shrubberies and plantations are quite near to the chosen 

 sites. The two first were communicated by my relative, (noticed 

 in one of my former papers on birds,) and occurred at Wolfhill. 

 He observes : " The nests of a robin that I examined in the car- 

 penter's loft are placed on the corner of the wall which supports 

 the roof; the foundation is large wood shavings, of which the 

 sides of the nest are likewise formed, together with moss, beech 

 leaves, wool, tufts of cow-hair, &c, but with horse-hair only 

 are they lined. The mass of materials in which these two nests 



