ERYTHACA BUBECULA. 



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examinatio was made, and there lay the naked, helpless cause of the 

 father's glee, his new-hatched offspring just ushered into the world. After 

 a day or two a more curious thing took place, for the two parents introduced 

 a third robin, which at once assisted them in bringing up their young, nor 

 halted until they could fly, and even assisted in their flight." 



This was out of the usual course of science, but it shows the 

 deviations of unerring Nature. Might not this little incident of 

 life in a robin's nest suggest that a study of the inner life of 

 birds might reveal something which the scientist in his 

 merciless search for the principle of being can never dream 1 



I know another deviation in which the pugnacious little robin 

 actually frightened and drove a cat away from her young. In 

 trying to fly, a young robin fell on the grass — a cat seized it in 

 its mouth and was running off with it, when the young bird 

 giving a cry, the old one dashed at the cat with such fierceness 

 that she dropped it, backed up against the fence, and showed fight. 

 The old bird, not a bit dismayed, with bill wide open, feathers 

 ruffled, and screaming with rage, struck the cat twice, which was 

 so frightened that it ran away and crawled under a hedge. And 

 as a proof of its intelligence, I knew a robin's nest amongst ivy 

 on a wall that was to be taken down. To save the eggs the nest 

 was placed in a neighbouring bush ; the birds seemed to under- 

 stand the kind intention, for they sat on the eggs and reared 

 their young till they flew. When making alterations at Abbey 

 Park in 1890, a pair built in one of the rooms where I pulled 

 out a lintel, and reared six young ones. I had difficulty in 

 getting the fledglings out of the house, as they flew from room 

 to room, not knowing how to get out without my help. The 

 robin lays in April; but, as already said, mildness of season 

 regulates this, for I have got their eggs in January. They 

 generally make their nest on the ground in a bank amongst 

 hedge roots, but the places vary. I have got them in all 

 situations, from a hole in the stump of a tree, flush with the 

 ground, to a branch pretty high up. In 1885, two were got 

 amongst club-heads in Tom Morris' drying-shed at the Links ; 

 and to show their ingenuity, if not intelligence, I got one with 

 eggs on a tree in front of a livery stable in 1881, which was 

 steadied by threads to the branch above — like the rigging of a 

 ship — as if the birds had known it was not so secure as on the 

 ground, like one I knew under the rails of the N.B. Railway, 

 near Springfield, where the hen did not fly when the wheels 

 passed over, but coolly sat on her eggs. So we see there is no 

 particular place for birds' nests. I knew of one in a laundry- 

 maid's old bonnet, in which the young were reared till they flew ; 



