NUMBERS OF BROODS. 343 



ceivable how a whole flock of the species may be 

 produced; and were the original parents to be 

 surrounded by their own direct descendants 

 the birds they had themselves reared, with their 

 offspring's offspring, we may imagine what an 

 enormous multitude of birds would then be con- 

 gregated together. 



The following extract from the pages of the 

 Zoologist will show how some of the birds which 

 are our most constant companions in summer, 

 multiply around us in spite of the attacks of 

 man : 



"April 27, 1848. The young leave the first 

 nest, built in a clump of ivy on the top of a wall ; 

 four in number, one egg having been abstracted 

 from the nest before incubation. 



" April 29. Two eggs in the second nest, 

 detected in a bushy yew tree. 



" May 16. The male bird observed feeding the 

 five young, newly hatched, in the second nest. 



"May 24. The hen blackbird seen making 

 her third nest in an apple tree nailed to a wall. 



" May 29. Two eggs in the third nest : and the 

 brood leave the second nest, and perch on the trees. 



" June 10. Third nest forsaken. Of the eggs, 



