42 BRITISH BIRDS. [vol. x. 



ROBINS BUILDING NESTS IN SPRUCES. 



On April 14th, 1916, 1 found near Oswestry, Shropshire, a nest 

 of a Robin {Erithacus r. melo'pJiilus) placed, exactly like a 

 Blackbird's or Thrush's nest, in a young spruce. The bulk 

 of the nest attracted my notice and the fact that it was 

 built outwardly of dead leaves. It seemed rather incom- 

 pletely lined at the time, and as it had not progressed any 



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ROBIN ON ITS NEST IN A SPRUCE TREE. 

 (Photographed by J. H. Owen). 



further on April 18th I thought it was deserted. On April 22nd 

 I was taking a friend to see it and while passing through the 

 wood discovered another Robin's nest in a similar situation 

 and containing four highly-incubated eggs. This nest was 

 much smaller than the other and also incompletely lined. 

 I was rather surprised on reaching the first nest to find that 

 it contained three fresh eggs. This number was afterwards 

 increased to five. Later on some bird sucked them, while in 

 the other nest the young hatched but were taken by vermin. 

 Some of the measurements of the nests may interest other 

 ornithologists, so I give a table of them. Both nests were 



