BIRDS. 57 



no less than five adult cats : Pheasant, partridge, 

 carrion-crow, missel-thrush, song-thrush, blackbird, 

 starling, house-sparrow, hedge-sparrow, robin, wren, 

 barn-swallow, house-martin, chaffinch, lark, whinchat, 

 red-backed shrike, yellow-hammer, moorhen, lap- 

 wing, great tit, blue tit, kestrel, turtle-dove, 

 white-throat. 



During January and February I placed old 

 coffee-pots, jam-jars, kettles, biscuit - boxes, and 

 other things suitable for robins to breed in, round 

 the rick-yard and garden of this farmhouse, and 

 early in April I was gratified to find that one of 

 several pairs of robins living in the vicinity had 

 taken possession of a coffee-pot which I had laid 

 on its side in a hedgerow running parallel with 

 a cart-shed. In this she reared two broods during 

 the season, and we made a good many photographs 

 of her, two of which appear overleaf. Another 

 pair of birds took possession of the lower half of a 

 large stone beer-bottle, lying on its side upon the 

 ground in the garden hedgerow, and a third in 

 the jam-jar, as represented in our photograph on 

 page 01. This jar was situated nearest the house, 

 and about midway between the two other nests. 

 One morning, about six o'clock, whilst looking 

 round I started a rabbit from a ditch close by the 

 jam-jar, and a cat, which appeared to have been 

 stalking it, also jumped out and bounded off home. 

 I began to have fears for the safety of my robins., 

 and when the one in the jar had three or four 



