THE REDBREAST. 193 



is pretty equal ; for if one be much weaker than 

 the other, the stronger robin will show its com- 

 panion no mercy. If a petted redbreast should 

 come to a spot and find another there, the poor 

 bird will have no rest, but will be annoyed by every 

 means which robin's petty rage can devise, even 

 if it escape being killed. Mr. Thompson, in his 

 Notes of a Naturalist, records several instances 

 of the redbreast's pugnacity. It will, he says, in 

 some cases completely blind it to its own safety, 

 as he witnessed in a combat between two birds 

 at Margate. This was commenced at the most 

 frequented part of the town, and the redbreasts 

 struggled together at the feet of the passengers, 

 rose in the air while continuing the conflict, and 

 finally fell into the harbour. Here they were 

 picked up, still most pertinaciously clinging to 

 each other. This ^mter, as well as other observers, 

 has remarked that the tendency to fighting is 

 gi-eater during autumn than at any other season. 

 He nan*ates a singular instance, which occurred 

 at the close of September, 1835. " I heard," he 

 says, " a robin warbling in a tree, in a small gar- 

 den adjoining my house, and wishing to excite its 

 attention, I placed in the window-sill a beautifully 

 



