84 BIRD NOTES 



affords. May we not also fancy that they may like 

 the flowers ? They seem to choose their homes 

 and build their nests with an eye to beauty. A 

 quite lovely nest a pair of robins have built this 

 year in the pendent ivy by the side of the tool 

 shed ; and in it, though in such an exposed place, 

 they have managed to rear three young ones. 

 Dear little things, I was so glad of them ! One 

 day I found the nest empty and the parents in a 

 terrible state of mind. Two of their children 

 were about in the garden, but were so very small 

 and badly clothed that I came to the conclusion 

 a cat had frightened them out of their nest too 

 soon, and had perhaps taken the third. The 

 parent robins have been in such an ungovernable 

 rage ever since, whenever a cat has made its ap- 

 pearance, that I feel sure there must have been 

 some unusual cause of offence. I have seen them 

 sit both together on a rose-branch that overhangs 

 the wall, and shriek at the cat like mad things, 

 flapping their wings at her as if they thought they 

 could frighten her away. I could hardly help 

 laughing, though their agony was most tragically 

 real. The young birds are grown to a safer size 

 now, and can fly away. One fluttered in at the 

 kitchen window lately. It was caught, and I put 

 it back behind the faggots where the old robin 

 tried hard to keep them. 



