Birds. 245 



our garden in winter runs a brook, but in summer there is 

 only still water, which is inhabited by waterhens, &c. The 

 waterhens have become quite tame, from persons constantly 

 passing and repassing. This year, in the spring, a pair of them 

 hatched some young ones ; and, as soon as they were feathered, 

 made another nest, and hatched some more. The young 

 ones of the second hatch left the old birds, and have been 

 adopted by the young ones of the first hatch, who have each 

 taken one, and seem to take as much care of them as the old 

 ones could have done : they feed them, and never leave them. 

 Only one young one has remained with the old hen. — J. M. B, 



[Facts on other points in the history of the waterhen may 

 be found in IV. 517. 519., V. 381. 601. 730., VII. 73.; and 

 in the Field Naturalist., i. ^QQ."] 



A Male Redstart has aided in sustaining and protecting the 

 Offspring of another Pair of Redstarts, — 1 discovered the nest 

 of a pair of redstarts (Sylvia Phoenicurus), called here fire-tails, 

 in a hole in a wall in my garden, from the male bird's constantly 

 sitting on a particular tree near the place where the nest was, 

 and from his continually uttering his plaintive and garrulous 

 note while any object to excite alarm was in sight. I mention 

 this, because, from his attention to his mate, I was particularly 

 interested in the pair, and watched them with great care. In 

 about two or three days after I had discovered them {the hen 

 was then sitting), the male bird, while on his usual station, 

 was, to my great grief, killed by a stone which his familiarity 

 had tempted an idle boy to throw. I saw him killed myself. 

 On my going by the place the next day, I was excessively 

 surprised to see a male redstart sitting on the very same tree 

 from which, the day before, the other had been knocked 

 down. On my going near the nest, it flew away with evident 

 tokens of alarm ; and on my putting my hand to the nest, the 

 hen bird flew off". All I need say in addition is, that the eggs 

 were hatched, and the foster-father (for such he certainly was) 

 assisted, as the cock birds usually do, the hen in bringing up 

 the young brood. The circumstance has puzzled me extremely, 

 both then and since. How could the redstart be possibly 

 acquainted that the hen was without a mate ? She could not 

 have been off the nest long ; for, if the eggs had once got cold, 

 they could never have been hatched ; and the redstart is a 

 solitary bird, and by no means common here. — Subrusticus, 



The Origin of the Songs of Birds. — A person known to 

 me put some goldfinches' eggs under a canary ; and although 

 the young goldfinches hatched by the canary from these eggs 

 learned the song of the canary, yet they by no means lost 

 their own innate note : their song was, consequently, a mix^ 



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