42 BEDSTABT. 



hended, according to one writer, resembles the word 'chippoo;' 

 Macgillivray, always accurate, likens it to the syllables 'oi-chit.' 

 It is said to sing most in the morning and evening, and 

 this is probably the case, as with other birds. It sometimes 

 utters its song while on the wing, and even while flying from 

 one station to another. 



The nest, which is more or less well concealed, and is 

 rather loosely constructed, is built of moss, dry grass, and 

 leaves, and lined with hair and feathers. It is frequently 

 placed in a hole in an old wall, under the eaves of a house, 

 in a hollow or hole in a tree, or even between the branches 

 of one, as also against a wall, if extraneous support is afforded. 

 One has been known to have been placed in a watering-pot, 

 others in flower-pots, and one in a hole in the ground, even 

 where such a choice was not made from necessity. It is 

 frequently placed close to or in the wall of a house, and that 

 where persons are constantly passing, even within reach of 

 the hand. Another has been known also placed on the ground 

 under an inverted flower-pot; the hen bird successfully reared 

 her brood, the flower-pot, which was at first unwittingly 

 removed, having been replaced by the Rev. J. C. Atkinson, 

 who relates the circumstance in the 'Zoologist,' page 355. 

 Bishop Stanley mentions one he had known 'built on the 

 narrow space between the gudgeons or narrow upright iron 

 on which a garden door was hung; the bottom of the nest, 

 of course, resting on the iron hinge, which must have shaken 

 it every time the door was opened. Nevertheless, there she 

 sat, in spite of all the inconvenience and publicity, exposed 

 as she was to all who were constantly passing to and fro.' 

 Another has been known in like manner to sit through the 

 din of three looms at work from five o'clock in the morning 

 until ten at night, within twelve feet of the nest. The same 

 situation, if the birds have been undisturbed, is frequently 

 resorted to from year to year. One pair have been known 

 to revisit the same garden for sixteen seasons in succession: 

 a pair resorted for four successive years to the ventilator of 

 a stable. The female is sedulously devoted to her eggs or 

 young, and will sometimes suffer herself to be touched before 

 flying off from the nest, if, however, they be molested she 

 will forsake it; both birds indeed are most assiduous in their 

 attentions to their brood, one or other of them being to be 

 seen in constant motion, conveying food to them, or retiring 

 in search of it. In one instance, the male bird having been 



