KEDBBEAST. 



27 



taining several eggs was taken near York the first week in 

 February, 1844, there being snow on the ground at the time, 

 and the temperature ranging from 30 to 23 Fahrenheit: 

 another, which had five eggs, was found at Moreton in the 

 Marsh, in the second week of January, 1848; another, with 

 the like number of eggs, in a garden at Wheldrake, near 

 York, the 10th. of the same month; and one, also with 

 eggs, near Belfast, on the 20bh. of February, 1846. A nest 

 with two eggs, on which the hen bird was sitting, was 

 found near the end of November, 1851, at Gribton, Dum- 

 friesshire, the seat of Francis Maxwell, Esq. 



The nest of the Robin, which is built of fine stalks, moss, 

 dried leaves, and grass, and lined with hair and wool, with 

 sometimes a few feathers, is generally placed on a bank 

 under the shelter of a bush, or sometimes in a bush itself, 

 at a low height from the ground, and occasionally in a hole 

 in a wall covered with ivy, a crevice in a rock, among fern 

 and tangled roots the entrance perhaps being through some 

 very narrow aperture, or an ivy-clad tree. It measures about 

 five inches and three quarters across, and two and a half in 

 internal diameter. It is concealed with great care and success. 



His late Majesty King William the Fourth had a part of 

 the mizen-mast of the Victory, against which Lord Nelson 

 was standing when he was mortally wounded, placed in a 

 building in the grounds of Bushy Park when he resided 

 there. A large shot had passed through this part of the 

 mast, and in the hole it had left, a pair of Robins built their 

 nest and reared their young. The relic was afterwards removed 

 to the dining-room of the house, and is now in the armoury 

 of Windsor Castle. 'Victoria pacem.' 



'A Robin,' says Mr. Jesse, 'lately began its nest in a myrtle 

 which was placed in the hall of a house belonging to a friend 

 of mine in Hampshire. As the situation was considered rather 

 an objectionable one, the nest was removed. The bird then 

 began to build another on the cornice of the drawing-room, but, 

 as this was a still more violent intrusion, it was not allowed to 

 be completed. The Robin, thus baffled in two attempts, began 

 a third nest in a new shoe, which was placed on a shelf in 

 my friend's drawing-room. It was permitted to go on with 

 its work until the nest was completed, but as the new shoe 

 was likely to be wanted, and as it would not be benefited by 

 being used as a cradle, the nest was carefully taken out, and 

 deposited in an old shoe, which was put in the situation of 



