THE REDBREAST. 161 



at one time satisfies me that the young birds of the year bear their 

 part in the concert, and the fact of every individual in view trilling 

 forth its notes, favours the idea that the female bird is possessed 

 of song. When the ground has been covered with snow, of more 

 than a week's continuance at mid- winter, and the sun did not break 

 forth all day, I have heard several singing, and answering each 

 other as at a more genial season : — a wild bird, too, has been ob- 

 served to wash, at such a time as in summer. All this would indi- 

 cate a seeming indifference to cold, of which we, however, know 

 these birds to be very susceptible, leaving as they do various con- 

 tinental countries, on the approach of winter, and betaking 

 themselves to milder climates. In snares, set for small birds 

 during frost, I have remarked that redbreasts were generally the 

 first victims. Their extreme tameness before a fall of snow, un- 

 erringly shows their sensibility to the coming change, and in 

 several instances has led me to prognosticate it with certainty, 

 when no other indication was perceptible. 



That a single redbreast, or a pair of these birds, has generally a 

 particular beat or range I have had abundant evidence, (vide 

 Dovastonin Loudon's Mag. Nat. Hist. vol. vi. p. 3,) as I have also 

 had, that they very frequently keep within it as spring advances, 

 instead of retiring to the thickest woods to build, as stated by 

 many authors. In towns, they have been known to me as fre- 

 quenting a certain quarter throughout the year. Eor two years this 

 occurred in our own office-houses, and in each season two 

 broods were reared. In one instance the nest was placed on the 

 top of a wall supporting the roof of the gateway, and in the other, 

 on the part of the side-wall of a three-story building, the only 

 approach to it being through small apertures, about two inches in 

 diameter, cut in trap-doors on the first and second floors to admit 

 the rope attached to a pulley. Perched on the neighbouring 

 buildings, these birds gave forth their song, and for about the 

 latter half of the month of October, 1831, when the days were 

 very fine and bright, one regularly frequented the stable, and, 

 when perched upon the stalls, sang without being in any degree 

 disturbed by the general business of the place going forward, even 



VOL. I. M 



