3 2VESTS AND EGGS OF BIRDS. 



Sometimes the bird displays a strong lack of sense. In Ge- 

 neva, N. Y., a robin took possession of a sort of trough which 

 had been nailed up under the eaves of a barn ; but, seeming un- 

 able to fix upon any particular spot, deposited the mud and 

 straw along the entire length of the trough, about ten feet. 

 After working several days she abandoned the task. Another 

 similar instance is recorded where robins attempted to plaster 

 their nest along the cornice of a house for thirty feet. One 

 robin placed its nest between the tracks on the abutment of a 

 railway bridge ; though it flew oft' every time the trains passed 

 over, the young were brought out. Another knew no better 

 than to sit upon its eggs in a dead walnut under a blazing sun, 

 instead of placing its nest where it would have been shaded by 

 foliage. On the other hand, singularly advantageous spots are 

 often selected, and much time and labor saved by discretion. 

 The persistency with which robins adhere to a site once chosen, 

 and the indefatigable efforts by which they seek to overcome 

 difficulties, even procuring concerted help from other robins, 

 and planning to meet unthought-of contingencies, are illustrated 

 by many anecdotes. One of these I beg to quote from an essay 

 by Mrs. Mary Treat, in Harper's Magazine for June, 1S77, 

 since it is peculiarly instructive : 



The last three j'ears a robin (^Turdus migyatoriiis) has nested on a 

 projecting pillar that supports the front piazza. ... In the spring 

 of 1S74 she built her nest on the top of the pillar — a rude affair; it was 

 probably her first effort. The same season she made her second nest 

 in the forks of an oak, which took her only a few hours to complete. 

 She reared three broods that season ; for the third family she returned 

 to the piazza and repaired the first nest. The following spring she again 

 came to the piazza, but selected another pillar for the site of her domi- 

 cile, the constructionof which was a decided improvement upon the first; 

 for the next nest she returned to the oak, and raised a second story on 

 the old one of the previous year, but making it much more symmetrical 

 than the one beneath. The present season (1S76), her first was, as 

 before, erected on a pillar of the piazza — as fine a structure as I ever 

 saw this species build. When this brood were fledged, she again repaired 

 to the oak, and reared a third story on the old domicile, using the moss 

 before mentioned, making a very elaborate affair, and finally finishing 

 up by festooning it with long sprays of moss. 



Ranging through so wide an extent of country, and coming 



