64 REDBREAST. 



been expected, alighted on the floor till she had gone, 

 when it immediately returned to its nest. 



Mr. Jesse relates the following: 'A gentleman had 

 directed a waggon to be packed, intending to send it 

 to Worthing, where he himself was going. For some 

 reason his journey was delayed, and he therefore directed 

 that the waggon should be placed in a shed in the yard, 

 packed as it was, till it should be convenient for him 

 to send it off. While it was in the shed, a pair of 

 Robins built their nest among some straw in it, and 

 had hatched their young just before it was sent off. 

 One of the old birds, instead of being frightened away 

 by the motion of the waggon, only left the nest from 

 time to time for the purpose of flying to the nearest 

 hedge for food for its young, and thus alternately 

 affording warmth and nourishment to them, it arrived 

 at Worthing. The affection of this bird having been 

 observed by the waggoner, he took care in unloading 

 not to disturb the Robin's nest; and the Robin and 

 its young returned in safety to Walton Heath, being 

 the place from whence they had set out; the distance 

 travelled not being less than one hundred miles. 

 Whether it was the male or female Robin which kept 

 with the waggon I have not been able to ascertain; 

 but most probably the latter; for what will not a 

 mother's love and a mother's tenderness induce her 

 to do?' 



The eggs, generally five or six in number, are of 

 a delicate pale reddish white, faintly freckled with 

 rather darker red, most so at the larger end, where a 

 zone or belt is sometimes formed. Some are entirely 

 white. N. Rowe, Esq., of Worcester College, Oxford, 

 has written me word of five eggs, found in the elegant 

 gardens of that, my own, college, whose 'classic shades, 



