160 SYLVIATXE. 



no severity of weather. With respect to other food of an un- 

 usual kind, it may be mentioned, that a plant of the Fuchsia 

 tenella in the " Falls " greenhouse was entirely deprived of its 

 seed by robins; that in a friend's garden, in the summer of 

 ]838, some young birds of the year were captured in the nets 

 suspended over the cherry-trees, when in search of the protected 

 fruit, and others were often seen partaking freely of the cherries. 

 The stomachs of two killed in the month of January for the pur- 

 pose of being stuffed, having been sent to me, were found to con- 

 tain in addition to gravel, the remains of insects only. One was 

 filled with Coleoptera, the other with various insect food. Robins 

 are such favourites* as scarcely ever to be shot in Ireland. 



The song of the robin is heard with us throughout the year, 

 except at the moulting period. Even in dull and rainy win- 

 ter mornings, when all other birds are silent, this favourite 

 species may sometimes be heard as soon as twilight commences, 

 and long before the sun is up. It will hold forth, too, in the 

 autumnal and winter afternoons, until darkness sets in. Its song 

 was once heard at the Palls in a moonlight night, as it has been 

 on different occasions by moonlight in the county of Wexford.f 

 I have more than once in Belfast listened to the commencement 

 of its song in the first week of June, at a quarter before three 

 o'clock. So soon after the breeding season as the end of July, its 

 song has been renewed at Wolf-hill, and on the 6th of August, 

 several had in one year recommenced their strains. Fine autum- 

 nal mornings succeeding wet nights, are the favourite time for 

 the harmony of this and many other birds. I have seen and heard 

 about a dozen of redbreasts perched on the fruit trees in our 

 garden, and about twenty-five to thirty yards distant from each 

 other, singing at the same time. So many of them sending forth 



* November 23, 1847. Taking shelter to day from a heavy shower in a cottage at 

 the side of the river Lagan, near Belfast, a robin came to the door, picked crumbs, 

 and flew away. The mistress of the cottage remarked that as winter advanced it 

 would take up its abode in the house altogether, as it had done for the last four or 

 five winters. But what pleased me, (and induced this note to be made) was, that 

 lest the robin should be disturbed, no cat had as formerly been kept in the house, 

 since the bird established itself as a winter inmate. 



t Poole. 



