164 sylviaDjE. 



Two ladies at Lame, believing that a robin, which they fed at 

 the window-sill, was disposed to nidify, placed a box within the 

 porch of their house, for its accommodation. The kind act was 

 at once understood and appreciated by the bird, which built its 

 nest, and reared its brood in the box. The ladies so far assisted in 

 providing building materials, as to pull hairs out of an old chair 

 cover ; the robin flew regularly for these, and with them the nest 

 was wholly lined. That the noisy operations of the ship-builder 

 will not prevent the selection of a place for nidification, in his im- 

 mediate vicinity was shown by a circumstance winch came under 

 my own observation. On May 13th, 1836, I saw a redbreast's 

 nest, containing young, in a small round aperture apparently where 

 a knot had been in one of the timbers of the ship " Dunlop," 

 then under repair in the dry dock at Belfast. It was built inside 

 the vessel about three yards from the top of the timbers, (the deck 

 being off,) and at the time of its construction, the deafening pro- 

 cess of driving in the tree-nails was carried forward occasionally 

 close to the nest. An observant friend, discovering a redbreast's 

 nest, remarked the apparent stupidity of the bird, which having 

 been lifted off the eggs and laid on his open hand, sought not, and 

 indeed seemed to want the power, to escape. He placed it in the 

 nest again, and returning the next day found the young brood 

 out. The appearance of the bird on the previous day, it was now 

 presumed, had been caused by its intentness on the last stage of 

 incubation. I have seen young robins flying about Belfast on the 

 12th of May. In the very early spring of 1846, a nest with eggs 

 was discovered in the vicinity of that town, on the 20th of 

 February. 



A note of February 18th, 1838, reminds me that a young robin 

 of the year, which was caught late in the preceding autumn, and 

 kept for some time in a large cage at the Falls, in company with 

 other birds, made its escape, but, on the appearance of snow, two 

 months afterwards, returned, when it gladly renewed its acquaint- 

 ance with the lady of the house, and a servant, both of whom had 

 been in the habit of feeding it, — the bird at once markedly exhi- 

 bited its former partiality towards them, in preference to the other 



