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strains with its own with excellent eftect. It appears to be a bird 

 which can be taught certain airs, as Mr. Yarrel mentions one that 

 was in the possession of Mr. Sweet, which could whistle the Copen- 

 hagen waltz. I have heard this bird sing whilst on the wing j after 

 pairing he does not perch so high when singing, but yet always 

 where he can see around him. They nest in various situations : 

 holes in trees, in old walls, sometimes in ornamental vases in 

 gardens, on the ledges of outbuildings, and in bowers covered with 

 ivy, sometimes in holes two or three feet deep, and at other times 

 only a few inches. I have seen it under the coping of a wall on 

 the public road, where people were passing every few minutes 

 within a few feet of it. The birds nest in the same holes every 

 year. I know of one hole, in a tree near to the Asylum, where 

 there has been a nest year after year ever since I was a boy. The 

 Rev. C. A. Johns mentions a pair of Redstarts, who, themselves, 

 or their descendants, for twenty years, nested in the box of a 

 wooden pump. On one occasion, the pump being out of order, 

 the owner employed workmen to repair it. This proceeding 

 offended the birds, who deserted it for three years, and then for- 

 getting, or forgiving, the intrusion, returned to their unquiet home. 

 Another pair constructed their nest for ten successive years in the 

 interior of an earthenware fountain placed in the middle of a garden. 

 This species is singularly attached to its nest. We remember one 

 which had made its nest in a garden wall, being discovered by a 

 young lady, who used to visit it daily, and who dexterously caught 

 the old bird while sitting, and carried it with great tenderness into 

 the house to show her sister, and then replaced it on the nest. 

 Notwithstanding this, and that the eggs and young were frequently 

 handled, the Redstart reared her brood safely ; and the lady looks 

 for the arrival of her friends every summer. Bishop Stanley 

 mentions one which built its nest on the narrow space between 

 the gudgeons or upright iron on which a garden door was hungj 

 the bottom of the nest, of course, resting on the iron hinge, which 

 must have shaken it every time the door was opened ; nevertheless, 

 there she sat, in spite of all this inconvenience and publicity, 

 exposed as she was to all who were constantly passing to and fro. 



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