10 WINTER AND THE ROBINS, AND HOW 
shown in Plate I was constructed, as men- 
tioned, entirely of dead leaves, but the usual 
spring and summer nests (Plate IV) are not 
composed of such material; the birds use 
dried twigs, roots, moss and grass, the lining 
being invariably made of hair and feathers, 
whether the nest be made in winter, spring, 
or summer. We found this nest in a hole in 
a bank shaded by thick bushes, and along 
which a deep ditch ran, a typical place for 
the robin to build in. It was so well con- 
cealed that we should not have found it un- 
less we had seen the bird fly out. Hidden 
away as it was, and in a very bad light, the 
photograph does not show well the details of 
the interior. The first nests of robins are 
generally built in April, and amongst the 
earliest. They are never more than three to 
six feet from the ground. At least two broods, 
and often three, are reared “each years eae 
male and female birds are much alike, but 
1 I gave this nest twenty minutes exposure at F/32, 
using a fast plate, and it would have been the better for 
still longer. 
