34 THE ARCHITECTURE OF BIRDS. 



and care being taken to feed them as well as to give 

 them no molestation, they succeeded in rearing a 

 brood of young, to the wonder of all who witnessed 

 the circumstance. 



A singularly fanciful account of the redbreast's 

 nest is given by Turner, an English naturalist, who 

 wrote so long ago as the sixteenth century. " The 

 robinet,"* says he, " which hath a red breast both 

 in summer and in winter, nestleth as far as possible 

 from towns and cities, in the thickest copses and 

 orchards, after this manner : when she hath found 

 many oak leaves, she constructed a nest, and when 

 built, covereth it with arch work, leaving only one 

 way for entrance, for which purpose she builds with 

 leaves a long porch before the doorway, the which 

 when going out to feed, she covereth up with leaves." 

 But as if somewhat skeptical himself respecting his 

 own description, he subjoins, " these things which I 

 now write I observed when a boy, though I do not 

 deny that she may nidificate otherwise ; and if any 

 one curious in such matters hath observed her build 

 differently, it will be a gratification to me to learn 

 the same : I have related candidly that which I have 

 seen." 



There can be scarcely a doubt, we think, that Tur- 

 ner in this instance was deceived by some dreaming 

 fancy ; yet is it afterward copied by almost every 

 ornithologist, from Aldrovand and Willoughby down 

 to Buffon and Bewick. After the nest is built, Wil- 

 lougaby tells us, the bird often strews it with leaves, 

 preserving only a narrow winding entrance under 

 the heap, and even shuts the mouth of it with a leaf 

 when she goes abroad. The only circumstance 

 which could have led to such a mistake is, that as 

 the redbreast makes its nest at the root of a tree, a 

 few leaves might have been accidentally drifted over 

 the entrance by the wind ; for among some hundreds 



* Drayton and other old poets call the redbreast Robinet. 



