260 SYLVIAD^I. 



fearless settlers. They entered through a window-frame, 

 the lattice of which had been removed ; and in a child's 

 covered cart, which, with its horse attached to it, was 

 hanging on a peg over the fire-place, and just afforded 

 space for the purpose, they built their first nest early in the 

 spring. The circumstance was observed, and soon became 

 an object of curiosity to the neighbours, many of whom 

 came to look at the nest ; these inquisitive visits, however, 

 had not the effect of alarming the birds, who here reared 

 without accident their first brood. "When the attention of 

 their parents was no longer needed by their full-fledged 

 offspring, they set about providing for another family, and 

 built their second nest on a shelf on the opposite side of the 

 room close to an old mouse-trap. Here again they received 

 visits of inquiry from bipeds of a larger growth, and reared 

 and dismissed their progeny. This second brood had no 

 sooner left them, than they again betook themselves to the 

 task of building a third nest under the same sheltering 

 roof, and for this purpose chose another shelf, in a different 

 corner of the same room ; and there, in their mossy bed, 

 on a bundle of papers, on the 21st of June, were four half- 

 fledged nestlings, which the hen was feeding while a party 

 was watching the proceeding, the cock bird con tenting him- 

 self with looking on from the outside. There was no 

 doubt that the same pair of birds belonged to each suc- 

 cessive nest, as the loss of her tail rendered the hen con- 

 spicuous. 



Mr. Blackwall of Manchester relates that " a pair of these 

 birds built their nest in a small saw-pit. Soon after the 

 female had begun to sit, the sawing of timber was com- 

 menced at this pit; and though the persons employed 

 continued their noisy occupation close to the nest every 

 day during the hatching of the eggs and the rearing of the 

 young, yet the old birds performed their several parental 



