150 BIRD NOTES 



long wire defence that I had put over the late- 

 sown peas, and which joined, with an opening, on 

 to the rhubarb. It could not walk, but had 

 scrambled to the other end ; and there it lived on 

 very contentedly for three days, the parent coming 

 to feed it. I put a rhubarb leaf over it, and 

 thought it a very nice safe place. So, I suppose, 

 did the old bird, or she might have got it out by 

 the way it went in. She herself had been caught 

 there a short time before, and made a fine fuss. 

 I had to let her out. 



The young pair of robins that lost their brood 

 by the gate have come back now with another 

 well-grown family, and I think the old robins 

 have two broods about ; any way there are a great 

 many of them, and I am very glad of them. 

 What should I do without the birds and roses ! 



August 19, 1887. 



I think the little straddle-legs you ask me about 

 must be a young robin ; but it must be a very 

 young one for picking up crumbs at a window. I 

 am afraid it must have lost its nursing parent, or 

 it would not be allowed to do so. I have a theory 

 that one parent takes two nestlings under its 

 charge, and the other another pair, and that they 

 keep apart. I may be wrong. 



The flycatchers are very busy here just now, 

 snapping and twisting about ; they have to be 



