NATURE'S CAROL SINGERS. 



ducted in quite a leisurely way, occu- 

 pying as much as a fortnight, but later 

 on no time is lost, and nests are made 

 in a much shorter period. 



Last spring I watched a female, quite 

 unaided by her mate, who was singing 

 very loudly morning, noon, and night 

 in my garden, build a nest in three days. 

 One morning she carried dead leaves and 

 moss to her home five times in five 

 minutes ! 



Although generally selecting holes in 

 banks and walls where a brick or a stone 

 has fallen out, this species is famed for 

 its apparent love of odd situations in 

 which to breed. I have found Robins' 

 nests in old tin cans, tea-pots, coffee-pots, 

 kettles, jam-jars, biscuit boxes, cocoa- 

 nut husks, fragments of bottles, and 

 clock cases, and have seen them in book- 

 cases and other places inside the much- 

 used rooms of dwelling-houses. 



Robins lay five or six eggs, as a rule, 

 although as many as seven, and even 

 eight, are occasionally found in one nest. 

 They are white or light grey, blotched 

 and freckled with dull light red. Some- 

 times the markings join each other nearly 

 all over the shell, and at others they are 

 collected round the larger end. 



