86 NOT EASILY SCARED. 



We have asserted that this bird selects at times singular 

 localities for its nest ; let us adduce an instance or two. 

 Jesse relates in his < Gleanings/ that William the Fourth, 

 when residing in Bushy Park, had a part of the foremast 

 of the Victory, against which Lord Nelson was standing 

 when he received his fatal death-wound, deposited in a 

 small temple in the grounds of Bushy House, from which it 

 was afterwards removed to the upper end of the dining- 

 room, with a bust of Nelson upon it. A large shot had 

 completely passed through this part of the mast, and while 

 it was in the temple, a pair of Eobins had built their nest 

 in the shot-hole, and reared a brood of young ones. It 

 was impossible to witness this little occurrence without 

 reflecting on the scene of blood and strife of war which had 

 occurred to produce so snug and peaceable a retreat for a 

 nest of harmless Eobins. 



During the completion of the Crystal Palace at Syden- 

 ham, in 1854, several Eobins lived in the interior of the 

 building, and made their nests in the holes of the large 

 roots which were employed in the formation of the banks 

 at the south end, notwithstanding the constant passing and 

 repassing of the workmen, and the almost deafening noise 

 which was continually going on. 



One pair, we are told, chose a small cottage in which 

 potatoes were kept, and which closely adjoined a black- 

 smith's shop, and despite the noise of the forge, and the 

 frequent visits of the owners, they built their nest in a 

 child's covered cart which hung against the wall over the 

 fireplace. Much curiosity was excited by the circumstance, 

 and the birds had many visitors, which did not seem to alarm 

 them. They raised their first brood, and made a new nest 

 on a shelf on the opposite wall of the room, close to a 

 mouse-trap ; here they sat in state, and again held a sort 

 of levee with the most perfect unconcern. The second 

 brood dismissed, they set about building a third nest, on 

 another shelf in a different corner of the same room, l and 

 there,' says the narrator, a correspondent of the ' Field 

 Naturalist's Magazine,' * on their mossy bed, on a bundle 

 of papers, on the 21st of June, were four half-fledged nest- 

 lings, which the hen was feeding, while a party was watch- 



