8 THE LIFE OF A BIRD. 



familiar friend, the redbreast, it has been justly 

 said, 



" High is his perch, but humble is his home ;" 



it generally lies at the root of trees, often over- 

 shadowed with high blades of grass, or overhanging 

 clusters of moss. Sometimes 



" Close at the root of brier-bush, that o'erhangs 

 The narrow stream, with shealings bedded white, 

 He fixes his abode." 



The situations selected by birds which do not 

 build in trees, or at their foot, among the vegeta- 

 tion clustering on the ground, are extremely 

 various, and frequently not the same for the 

 same species. The swallow places its dwelling 

 near our own; while the bank- swallow seeks the 

 friable surface of the sand-cliff, and there with 

 wonderful patience forms its gallery, and at its 

 further extremity deposits the loose materials of 

 its nest. Under the shelter of the haystack the 

 wren often builds; yet not unfrequently some 

 other site is selected for this purpose. The daw 

 has an antiquarian taste, and loves to fix its abode 

 in ruined castles or abbeys, or in some ivy-mantled 

 church-steeple. Sometimes even rooks select the 



