BIRDS IN THE CALENDAR 



is another fearless neighbour, but its freedom 

 from persecution, of late somewhat threatened 

 by Sparrow Clubs, is due less to affection 

 than to the futility of making any impression 

 on such hordes as infest our streets. 



No act of the robin's more forcibly illus- 

 trates its trust in man than the manner hi 

 which, at a season when all animals are 

 abnormally shy and suspicious, it makes its 

 nest not only near our dwellings, but actually 

 in many cases under the same roof as our- 

 selves. Letterboxes, flowerpots, old boots, 

 and bookshelves have all done duty, and I 

 even remember a pair of robins, many years 

 ago in Kent, bringing up two broods in an 

 old rat trap which, fortunately too rusty to 

 act, was still set and baited with a withered 

 piece of bacon. Pages might be filled with 

 the mere enumeration of curious and eccen- 

 tric nesting sites chosen by this fearless bird, 

 but a single proof of its indifference to the 

 presence of man during the time of incuba- 

 tion may be cited from the MS. notebooks 

 of the second Earl of Malmesbury, which I 

 have read in the library at Heron Court. 

 It seems that, while the east wing of that 

 140 



