Short Communications. 69 



counties, a mysterious sprinkling of dried leaves had been 

 frequently seen on some of the bookshelves ; and these accu- 

 mulations, though repeatedly swept away, had as repeatedly 

 been renewed. Conjecture was on the alert, but no adequate 

 or rational cause could be assigned, until, on or about the 

 15th or 16th of the above month, the mystery was thus 

 satisfactorily solved. The library, it should be observed, as 

 well as the dining-room, opens upon a lawn, under cover of 

 a veranda projecting over, and common to, both. As the 

 latter was not frequented by the family before the lisual 

 luncheon hour, at one o'clock, whenever the windows were 

 bpen, as they were on the day mentioned, any intruder from 

 the lawn and shrubbery might obviously have remained 

 unmolested, from the moment the housemaid quitted the room 

 in the morning, till the cloth was laid about noon, at which 

 hour the servant observed in the hollow festoon of one of the 

 window curtains, a large collection of leaves, evidently placed 

 as part and parcel of a nest, the rapid and busy morning's 

 work of a couple of robins, who were seen hovering near with 

 "eye askance," or escaping through the window when the 

 door was opened: and whieh, if left to themselves, were thus 

 prepared to rear their brood in the immediate presence of the 

 daily assembling family party. Every sympathising reader 

 of your Magazine will doubtless conclude that the happy 

 pair were allowed to remain, and that their progeny were 

 destined to be reared in the mantling folds of so enviable a 

 retreat. Alas, poor robins ! the lady of the house, excellent 

 and worthy in all respects, the single point excepted, of pre- 

 ferring the unsoiled damask of her curtains to a nest of red- 

 breasts, gave orders for the removal of so foul an'affront on 

 the decorum of her furniture; and, notwithstanding the loud 

 lament of a neighbouring naturalist, ejected the fond and 

 familiar pair, whose bridal couch of withered leaves was once 

 more scattered before the winds, to become the prize of other 

 and more fortunate tenants of the air. — E. £., F.L.S* March 

 30. 183^/"^ 9£ JT ^° 8«i9oq 8iH m ianohoma SYtfoaLteai Ito 



This interesting communication supplies another instance 

 to Mr. Bree's list of unusual situations chosen by birds for 

 their nests, p. 32 — 36; and naturally arranges itself beside 

 that which he relates of the robin, p. 35. — J. D. 



Is the Robin known to possess Sympathy for other Birds, 

 as ascribed to it in this paragraph ? — A remarkable instance 

 of the known kindness of the robin is to be seen at the Old 

 Palace bowling-green. It appears the landlord took a 

 thrush's nest with four young ones, and put them in a cage 

 in the garden, where they are constantly fed by the two old 



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