104 General Notes. 



the same sad result. For the fifth time they began to rebuild the nest ; 

 tliis was too much for my informant's feelings to resist, and he resolved to 

 let them carry out their plans. To his surprise, however, they soon began 

 to destroy the structure themselves, taking the materials to a branch 

 higher up, as if divining not only the source of their troubles, but the rea- 

 son that had prompted the repeated removal of their nest ; but after a 

 morning's work the nest was abandoned, and another site for it was se- 

 lected some rods away in a safer position. Here again, however, they 

 later came to grief, their eggs being taken by a ruthless boy, an habitual 

 robber of bird's-nests. 



The interesting points here brought out are the tenacity with which this 

 pair of Robins adhered to their chosen nesting-place ; the concerted action 

 of their sympathizing neighbors in aiding them at first to rebuild ; the 

 later greater care they displayed in more firmly attaching the nest to its 

 resting-place ; and finally the apparently intelligent recognition of the 

 source and cause of their troubles, and voluntary choice of a safer location. 

 — J. A. Allen, Cambridge, Mass. 



Deadly Combat between an Albino Robin and a Mole. — The 

 following interesting and curious incident is quoted from a letter received 

 by me from Miss Maria R. Audubon, granddaughter of the celebrated 

 naturalist, dated Newark, X. J., February 4, 1878. — Rcthven Deane. 



" We have had a Robin of the albino type winch for two years has built its 

 nest in the same tree, and devoured an immense number of worms from the 

 lawn around the house. It became quite tame, and we naturally felt a sort of 

 ownership in it. One morning 1 saw something moving or jumping on the 

 ground just under the tree, and on investigation it proved to be the Robin 

 engaged in deadly combat with a mole. I tried to drive the Robin away, and 

 found the mole had it firmly held by the wing. I set it free, and poked the 

 mole off with a stick to some distance 



The Robin flew to a branch of the tree, did not seem much hurt, plumed 

 itself, and finally disappeared among the foliage ; the mole, too, made off in an 

 unknown direction. I could find no reason for this unusual battle ; no corpses 

 of young Robinscould be seen to make feasible the suggestion that a fledgling 

 had fallen from the nest and been attacked by the mole, thereby bringing 

 down the wrath of the parent bird ; we knew the mole had not climbed the 

 tree, and we had never heard of a Robin eating a mole. 



" Neither party was Been again that day till towards evening, when the 

 Robin was again on the lawn as usual. The next morning 1 passed the tree 

 about the same hour as on the previous day, and there lay the mole and the Robin, 

 ' beautiful in death,' to use a poetic license, for they really looked very unpleas- 

 ant. Their bodies weir not cold ; the Robin very much ruffled as to plumage 

 and bloody about the throat and under the right wing ; the mole with his glossy 

 coat 'all the wrong way,' and severely pecked about the head and throat. 

 There was no life in either after I found them." 



