42 THE BIRDS OF KENT 



selves utter the note to which my attention has been 

 directed owing to its having been so long silent. I do not 

 assert that they alone sing in the latter part of the season, 

 but I believe they are generally the first to break the 

 autumnal silence. The Eedbreast is by far the most 

 indefatigable vocalist ; throughout the whole year he was 

 silent only from July 17 to August 6, and then the quiet 

 was profound ; for weeks together his was the only voice 

 heard, and nothing seems to impair his powers ; so inces- 

 sant is his music that the small rccorduig voices of his 

 progeny are unheard." 



Mr. A. G. Butler while bird's-nesting in Kent, found 

 at Murston, May 26, one egg pure white, the reddish 

 dots being few. 



In Mr. H. Lamb's notes, 1876, he writes : " I have heard 

 of a Kobin which built its nest on a shelf in a shoemaker's 

 work room and brought up its young. The shoemaker 

 would sometimes throw pieces of tallow down on the floor 

 and the bird would fly down, pick them up, and take 

 them to the nest." The Kobin is added to the Birds of 

 Higham by the Kev. C. H. Fielding. In the spring 

 of 1883, Mr. A. G. Butler describes the variation of nests 

 of this bird : "I took a large nest of a Eobin, over 

 5 inches in diameter, from ivy upon the front of a house. 

 This nest is strongly built of fine roots, bass, coarse 

 hair, a few withered grasses, and a little moss, firmly 

 interw^oven ; the back wall of the nest is about 2 inches 

 in thickness, gradually diminishing towards the front, 

 which is covered with dead oak-leaves, giving it the 

 appearance of a Nightingale's nest ; it contains six eggs, 

 almost uniform in tint, the large end of a pale russet tint, 

 growing gradually paler towards the smaller end ; no 

 distinct mottling is visible, but two or three isolated dark 



