236 THE REDBREAST. 



that identical pigeon-hole. Why the visits were not renewed 

 every year it is impossible to conjecture, but that the pair of 

 the present year were either the same old birds, or young 

 ones of the brood then reared in it, is more than probable, 

 from the circumstance of this pigeon-hole being again 

 selected ; when others, forming the school-library within the 

 same framework, would have equally suited the purpose. 



Another nest was constructed, and for two successive 

 years, in a still more extraordinary situation, which we give, 

 not on our own authority,* but fully believing it, corro- 

 borated, as it may in a manner be said to be, by the proofs 

 of confidence already given. A few years ago, a pair of 

 Eobins took up their abode in the parish church of Hampton, 

 in Warwickshire, and affixed their nest to the church Bible, 

 as it lay on the reading-desk. The vicar would not allow 

 the birds to be disturbed, and therefore supplied himself with 

 another Bible, from which he read the lessons of the service. 

 A similar instance occurred at Collingbourne Kingston church, 

 in Wiltshire, on the 13th of April, 1834: the clerk, on 

 looking out for the lessons of the day, perceived something 

 under the Bible in the reading-desk, and in a hollow place, 

 occasioned by the Bible's resting on a raised ledge, found a 

 Eobin's nest containing two eggs. The bird not having 

 been disturbed, laid four more, which were hatched on the 

 4th of May. The still more extraordinary part of the story 

 is, that the cock-bird actually brought food in its bill, and 

 fed the young brood during divine service, which is per- 

 formed twice every Sunday ; and it is further highly cre- 

 ditable to the parishioners, particularly the junior portion of 

 them, that the birds were never molested, and not an attempt 

 ever suspected to be made on the nest and eggs deposited in 

 so hallowed a spot. 



We can remember, indeed, a Robin hopping more than 

 once familiarly, as if aware how safe from peril it was at 

 such a moment, upon our own Bible, as it lay open before 

 us, reading the lessons on a Christmas-day. 



* Nat. Hist. Mag., No. 31. 



