62 The Irish Nahiralist. June 



NOTES. 



ZOOLOGY. 



Curious Sites for Robins' Nests. 



Birds' nests have been seen and heard of in pecuHar places. A Robin 

 here which has commenced building operations, and is at present engaged 

 in her task, has chosen a most noisy spot— a printing office, full of the 

 clash'ng of linotypes and the hammering made by compositors locking up 

 " formes." The nesting site is between two stacks of packages of bill- 

 heads on a shelf between two windows. The Robin flies through one 

 of the windows (which the printers have purposely left open) daily, 

 carrying feathers, &c., for its new home. One thing is noticed : if 

 strangers are about, no matter how quiet, the Robin seems to halt a 

 little longer. The printers take a great pride in their new companion. 



P.S. — Another Robin has commenced building operations on the same 

 shelf as the first in our comp. room. The first Robin is rearing her young 

 while the male is attending to their wants. 



W. J. MULLIN. 



Cookstown. 



On March 22, in the early morning, a Robin lighted on my bedpost, 

 and after announcing itself cheerfully, started building her nest behind 

 the books on the top shelf of my book-case. After breakfast, the room was 

 house cleaned, the books were taken down and the nest thrown out of the 

 window. When peace was declared, the housemaid gathered a 

 handful of dead leaves and put them where the bird had put hers. The 

 invitation was accepted and the nest was finished on April i. On April 5 

 there were two eggs, three on the 6th, four on the 8th, and five on the loth, 

 when she started to sit. In the early mornings, the cock often came into 

 my room, and shuffled about on the dressing table until the hen flew off 

 the nest and joined him outside. On April 22 she never left the nest, and 

 I saw him at work for the first time ; all day long, he vv'as carrying big 

 worms to her. When it was dark, he was in the nest and I could still 

 hear him feeding her. On the 23rd he was no longer seen, and the mother 

 bird was busy feeding her three young herself with wriggling white worms. 

 I would like to know whether the male Robins help in the hatching or not ? 



Strandtown, Belfast. Aileen Smiles. 



Three Robins selected curious nesting places in our grounds at Ardaluin, 

 near Newcastle, for building their nests. One built (last year) in a fruit 

 basket' hanging on the wall of the garden furnace-house, the door of which 

 was never closed. Two others this season (1922) built in old fruit cans ; 

 one of these was on the ground under some bushes. We fixed another old 

 fruit-tin up among the branches of a rhododendron, in which a third 

 Robin built, laying five eggs. 



Patrick and Basil Berry. 

 Ardaluin, Newcastle. 



