THE HOB IX. 59 



often be the occasion o sad disaster. As it is, fc pussy " 

 is the Robin's worst enemy; for even the most 

 reckless schoolboy, or other bird-nester, has a feeling of 

 almost religious reverence for the nest of "poor cock 

 Robin." 



Sometimes their choice falls upon a flower-pot or old 

 kettle, at others upon a hole in a wall ; but Robins 

 generally build in a hole in a bank a nest composed of 

 leaves, dry roots, grass, and moss, with a lining of hair, 

 together with a few feathers, and therein the female lays 

 from five to seven eggs of a delicate pale reddish- white 

 freckled with darker red spots, which are sometimes 

 gathered more thickly at the larger end, and will even 

 form a ring, though specimens have been found of a pure 

 white. The young are principally fed upon small worms 

 and caterpillars, but the food of the parents also embraces 

 other insects, such as spiders and their larvae, together with 

 fruit and berries. The young leave the nest in about 

 a fortnight, and in about a similar period will provide for 

 themselves ; when the parent birds commence building 

 a new nest, having two or three in the course of the 

 season. 



In the winter the Robin establishes himself in an 

 inhabited district generally in a garden adjoining a 

 house and will defend his supposed domain with great 

 pugnacity, especially against one of his own tribe. They 

 are particularly bitter against one another, and will some- 

 times kill the intruding foe or die themselves in defence of 

 their haunt. These conflicts are almost invariably 

 commenced by a vocal contest, intensified as the rivals 

 approach, and it is then that the Robin's call, "tsit, 

 tsit/' is heard most plainly ; they have also a peculiar 



