THE REDBREAST. 33 



to do, the window open. How long the bird had 

 carried on her operations unnoticed, we know not; 

 but a servant, accidentally, moving the drapery of 

 one of the window-curtains, discovered, in the folds 

 of a festoon, the Robin's nest. 



In this instance, the bird availed itself of a situa- 

 tion, in which, during the greater portion of the 

 day, she was in solitude and silence; but solitude 

 and silence do not seem essential to all Robin Red- 

 breasts, for we lately heard of a pair which took pos- 

 session of a pigeon-hole book-shelf in a school, which 

 was constantly frequented by seventy children. The 

 hole selected, was at the farthest extremity of the 

 room, immediately above the heads of a junior class 

 of little girls, from four to five years of age, who, 

 much to their credit, never disturbed the bird. 

 There she laid and hatched five eggs. One of the 

 young ones died in a few days, and the body was 

 carried off by the parent-birds. The remaining four 

 were regularly fed in the presence of the children, 

 and in due time reared. Soon after their departure, 

 the old bird repaired the nest, and laid three more 

 eggs, which she attended to with the same perse- 

 verance and success. We have often alluded to the 

 frequent return of birds to the same nests, and, per- 

 haps, the most singular feature in this anecdote is, 

 that about twelve years ago, a Robin built in that 

 identical pigeon-hole. Why the visits were not re- 

 newed 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 cir- 

 cumstance of this pigeon-hole being again selected ; 



VOL. II. D 



