8878 Birds. 
upon his beat, there is sure to bea fight until one of,them retires. Whatis the reason they 
never sing in confinement? I have had one for some years in my aviary, but he has 
never been heard to sing unless a wild bird should visit him, when he will utter a few 
notes of defiance, and then they begin to fight one another through the wires. The 
fox as well as the cat will not eat the shrew mouse.—G. S. Wintle; Gloucester, Decem- 
ber 3, 1863. 
Query about the Robin.—Though I have no wish to prolong the discussion on the 
habits or the supposed scarcity of the robin, 1 have one or two remarks to offer in reply 
to Mr. Ranson’s observations on my note of May last. He says (Zool. 8843), “ The 
Captain’s communication reads as if I had vouched for the truth of the popular notion, 
which I carefully avoided doing,” but by a reference to my note at Zool. 8523 it will 
be found, that in commenting on Mr. Whatt’s paper I said, “ He does not answer 
Mr. Ranson’s query, ‘Are there any grounds for it?’” clearly showing that I did not 
consider Mr. Ranson “ had vouched for the truth of the popular notion,” though it 
would now appear that he is somewhat credulous, for he remarks, “ neither has he 
convinced me that the popular notion is incurrect.” It was hardly to be expected that I 
should, considering the innate love of the marvellous more or less common to all. He 
then remarks, “The mistake into which the writer has fallen is one that is very 
common, namely, that the robin Jeaves the gardens and retires from the villages to 
build its nest. My experience goes to prove that the robin rarely withdraws 
from its winter haunts to build its nest, and it will not leave the garden if it 
ean find a convenient place to build in, This year I have had two nests in 
my garden, both in holes in the wall.” That I am not mistaken as to the robin’s 
habits I have only to refer your correspondent to ‘ Macgillivray’ (vol. ii. p. 267), 
where he says, “ Although most of the redbreasts retire from the vicinity of human 
habitations in summer, and betake themselves to the woods aud hedges, yet some 
go to no great distance.” This tallies with my own observations. Formerly, 
when Ventnor was but a mere village, I have had two and three robin’s nests in the 
garden ; of late years none, though during the autumn and winter the redbreast is as 
numerous as ever. Seemingly they differ somewhat in habits in the north ; possibly 
for want of green lanes, mossy banks, hedgerows and ivy-grown walls, wherein to build 
their nests; and Mr. Ranson’s remarks as to the odd holes and places to which they 
resort favours this opinion ; for he speaks of these “slits and holes” as convenient 
places. But in his endeavour to show that robins do not quit the vicinity of towns 
and villages to breed, he proves the species to be more numerous in the north than 
Mr. Whatt’s remarks would have led one to suppose. Mr. Ranson observes, “ This 
year I have had two nests in my garden,” and says he has occasionally found three, 
Let us see then what the latter number would give. Three pairs of old birds with two 
broods each, would make about thirty-six, allowing for an addled egg or two, but 
nothing for casualties, seeing that the robin is as distasteful to the northern breed of 
cats as is the shrew. (By the bye, I should like to exchange cats with some northerner, 
mine having a peculiar fancy—a kind of depraved French taste—for the robin). At 
this rate, as there can be few gardens without such “ convenient places,” redbreasts 
should be numerous enough. When I remarked that it was “so unnatural, too, that 
the young should destroy the parent birds,” it was not intended in the restricted sense 
in which it has been taken. Again, who is there that does not know that the robin 
is instinctively pugnacious? The “gentleman” referred to must be an uncommon 
old gentleman if he made the discovery. In the fight instanced there is one thing 
