464 CHAPTER OF VARIETIES. 



To WHAT MODERN GENUS DOES THE SHAMBLING BELONG? Mr. 



Blyth (p. 354) says, that he is unable to learn what the modern generic 

 name of the bramblefinch is. Is not Pyrgila the modern name ? Pyrgita 

 Montana is synonymous with Fringilla montifringilla, Linaria mon* 

 tana, and Passer montanus, all which superfluous names have been 

 bestowed upon this bird to gratify the whims and fancies of different 

 nomenclators, who, for the love of name-making, are never pleased to 

 be unanimously agreed upon the propriety of any single one. 



London, August, 1833. SOLITARIUS. 



REDBREAST'S NEST. On my garden chair, in an ivy-clad arbour, I 

 accidentally left on the close of the evening a piece of writing paper 

 from which I had taken Romana melon seed for sowing. On the 

 morning succeeding the evening I visited the arbour for the purpose of 

 replacing in the paper the seed not sown, but was somewhat surprised 

 to find the paper gone ; the situation of the arbour rendering it very 

 improbable that human visitant had been there after me the previous 

 evening, or before me the succeeding morning. Looking round with an 

 impression that a gust of wind had whirled the paper to a resting place 

 amongst the ivy, I espied the identical paper high up in the ivy, bearing 

 the inscription " Romana melon seed, 1829 ; " and on nearer search 

 ascertained that it formed part of a redbreast's nest. The exterior of 

 this nest was composed of dried ivy leaves, paper, string (the refuse 

 of flower-tying bands), and straw. A few weeks ago the nest of a song- 

 thrush was brought to me which had been lined with touchwood ; it 

 was partially so lined when I saw it. The touchwood was not cemented 

 with cohesive earth, but with garden mould *, the inefficiency of which 

 as a cement caused a portion of the touchwood to deposit itself on the 

 floor of the nest. A gate-post hard by was the source from which this 

 bird obtained the touchwood part of its building material. Thus, it 

 appears, at least in the foregoing instances, that the redbreast and the 

 song-thrush do not confine themselves to a particular kind of material 

 for the construction of their nests, but use that kind which is suited 

 to their purpose, and obtained with readiness in the vicinity of their 

 architectural labours. R. F. C. 



Shouldham, 1833. 



* And also, I should think, with saliva, as I have shown in " Architecture of 

 Birds." ED. 



