16 EGGS AND EGG-COLLECTING. 
fully hatched a brood, in the cartridge-box of a 
cannon which was fired twice daily in the Gun Park at 
Woolwich. It is a notable fact that in some parts of the . 
country Sparrows build extensively in trees, whilst in 
others such a circumstance is unknown. Some ornith- 
ologists are of opinion that it is an hereditary habit, 
others supposing that it 1s resorted to for the sake of cool- 
ness in hot weather; but a reason I incline to is that in 
parts of the country where houses and out-buildings are 
made of stone the birds find ample accommodation in 
joints, crevices, and crannies where the mortar has been dis- 
lodged, and are therefore not driven to the necessity of 
adopting trees, like birds found in districts where the 
houses are made of bricks, consequently closer, and afford- 
ing less opportunity for nest-building. This bird, besides 
its noted pugnacity, is an arrant rogue, and invariably 
takes advantage of the House Martin’s labour. I have 
known a house with twenty nests all close together under 
its eaves, about half of which were occupied by Sparrows, 
which had, in some cases where the nests were new, been 
actually watched ejecting the eggs of the original 
owners. 
The Robin is noted for its caprice in the selection of a 
nesting site, and has been found hatching its eggs in 
nearly every conceivable situation, from the ordinary mossy 
bank to the pocket of a gardener’s old coat which had 
been hanging undisturbed for several weeks in a tool- 
house. Old kettles, water-cans, inverted plant pots, &e., 
in buildings close to machinery in daily motion, and other 
equally curious places, are by no means rare occurrences. 
A case is recorded of a Robin’s nest having been built in 
the hole made by a cannon-ball through the mizzen-mast 
pr 
