THE NESTING OF THE ROBIN 119 



But no bird can compare in advenrurousness as 

 a nester with the robin which has thoroughly 

 familiarized itself with humanity by a residence 

 in town or village gardens. About this time of 

 the year there is always a crop of paragraphs in 

 the papers about strange nesting-places, and if 

 any one took the trouble to collect these paragraphs 

 he would quickly make the discovery that they 

 are almost entirely related to the nests of three 

 birds. About twenty per cent, of the cases of 

 queer nests would be cases in which great tits 

 or blue tits had chosen letter-boxes or hollow 

 iron gate pillars in which to rear their families. 

 The other eighty per cent, would be cases of 

 robins. With the humanized robin the one natural 

 idea about a nesting-place firmly held is that 

 it must be a shallow hole. It is not necessary that 

 it should be a secluded hole or a hole in any way 

 hidden by greenery. An old boot, a flower-pot 

 lying on its side on the ground, a watering-pan 

 hung on a nail, are likely to be pronounced " the 

 very thing." But these are almost normal sites 

 compared with others on record. The grease- 

 box of a railway wagon lying in a siding has been 

 resorted to more than once, and only the other 

 day the case was reported of a robin which insisted 

 on making its nest in a fold in the tarpaulin 

 covering a tradesman's van, which every day went 

 its rounds. 



The courage of the robin is at no time greater 

 than when it is on the nest. During the month 

 I have paid a daily visit to a sitting bird which 

 has its nest in an open recess in a wall against 



