54 BRITISH BIRDS. WITH THEIR NESTS AND EGGS. 



which it can stuff its nest seems to be welcome ; if built near the habitation 

 of man, it may be placed in a corner of an outhouse, or a ledge in a dust- 

 bin, in a watering-pot hanging on a nail, a quart pot hanging on a fence, 

 a flower pot in a shed, in ivy on the house wall, in creepers on a fence, 

 in the side of a bean-stack or pile of brush-wood : in all which situations I 

 have found it ; in the country an old teapot flung into a plantation may be 

 chosen, or a slight depression in the ground below a tree or ivy-covered 

 stump, a cranny in a rock or a deserted chalk- or sand-pit, or a hole in a 

 grassy bank : but the Robin's favourite nesting-site is at the side of a wide 

 public road bounded on either hand by a wood, from which a sloping 

 irregular bank partly covered with ivy and bramble descends to the thorough- 

 fare : during the frosts of winter or during heavy rains a large flint or 

 a fragment of rock is dislodged and rolls into the road leaving a hollow 

 partly overhung by ivy or fern : such a site is tolerably certain to be occupied 

 the following spring, and each succeeding year, by a pair of Redbreasts. 



I believe that of the many Robins which nest in our gardens and houses, 

 not one pair in twenty has the pleasure of seeing its young leave the nest ; 

 nearly the whole of them fall victims to cats. As to the cat not eating Robins, 

 that I have proved to be the wildest fiction; a mere rustic legend, no more 

 true to fact than the reputed poisonous qualities of the slow-worm and newt. 



The nest of this bird, when placed in holes, is a loosely built structure, 

 but is more compactly formed when situated in ivy or creepers ; the outer 

 walls are made of fine roots, bast, or coarse dry grass, bents, and sometimes 

 a few dead oak leaves intertwined with hair and moss ; the cup is neatly lined 

 with fine grasses, fibre and hair : .when built in holes moss is largely used 

 and when placed in ivy the front wall is largely covered with dead oak leaves, 

 giving it somewhat the appearance of a Nightingale's nest. 



The eggs vary in number from four to seven, but there are rarely less 

 than five or more than six ; in colour they are usually fleshy white, more or 

 less mottled and spotted with sienna- reddish and red-brown ; sometimes the 

 spotting is weak, and forms a mere rusty nebula at the larger end ; occasionally 

 the eggs are pure white. 



The note of anxiety is a sharp tick, tick-a-tck, tek, tek ; but when the 

 young are out of the nest it is sometimes varied by a veritable croak, 

 reminding one of the Nightingale ; a thin plaintive piercing note, a kind of 

 tseet (the same as the distress note) is usually repeated at intervals for a short 

 time before the bird sings. The song itself is sweet and clear but somewhat 

 plaintive : Henry Stevenson, in his " Birds of Norfolk " thus poetically describes 



