Singular Nidification in Birds. 35 



to themselves, it is not easy to say, as they were eventually 

 indebted to female curiosity for their emancipation. A lady 

 lifted up the pot, to see whether the birds were there; when 

 the whole brood, taking advantage of so favourable an oppor- 

 tunity, made their escape, darting forth in all directions, like 

 rays from a centre. 



A few years ago, a pair of robins * took up their abode in 

 the parish church of Hampton in Arden, Warwickshire, and 

 for two years in succession affixed their nest to the church 

 bible, as it lay on the reading-desk. The worthy vicar would 

 on no account have the birds disturbed; and accordingly 

 introduced into the church another bible, from which to read 

 the lessons. A question has been facetiously asked, whether 

 these birds were not guilty of sacrilege, not so much on 

 account of the daring liberty they had taken with the sacred 

 volume, as for having plundered the rope-ends out of the 

 belfry, wherewith to construct their habitation. Be this as it 

 may, the old women of the village took it into their heads 

 that the circumstance of the robin's building on the bible 

 was highly ominous, and foreboded no good to the vicar. It 

 so happened, that he died in the month of June of the second 

 year of the bird's building in the church ; an event which, no 

 doubt, confirmed the old women in their superstition, 



" Ni frustra augurium vani docuere parentes ; " Virgil. 



" Unless 



My parents taught me augury in vain ; " Trapp's Translation. 



and will be remembered and handed down to posterity, for 

 the benefit of any future vicar, should the robins again make 

 a similar selection. 



Wild ducks will occasionally make use of a deserted crow's 

 nest, &c, for the purpose of rearing their own brood ; more 

 frequently they will build on the head of a pollard willow, 



verted position, on a vacant part of the flower-bed, near the verge of a 

 gravel walk. Two small birds of the tomtit species having found their 

 way into the concavity of the pot, through a circular aperture, about 

 an inch and a quarter in diameter, in the centre of the bottom, have made 

 it their habitation during the time of incubation. A carpet is laid, in 

 an inclined direction, over the whole area, of fine fibrous moss ; at the 

 summit is constructed a little nest, in contact with the internal side of 

 the pot, the lining of which is a mixture of hair and feathers. When 

 it was first discovered, there were six eggs in it, which were soon 

 augmented to ten ; and at this time there are the same number of young 

 living birds, in a forward state, which will be on the wing in a few days." 



* In the English Chronicle of June 15. 1830, the following appeared, on 

 the authority of the Bolton Chronicle : — " There is now in the yard of 

 James Cross, Esq. of Mortfield, a robin sitting upon five eggs, which had 

 chosen for the situation of its nest the nave of an old cart-wheel." 



d 2 



