466 APPENDIX. 



bird attracted his notice by its eagerness in searching for food among 

 the fresh-stirred earth : it often came very close to the spade, in search 

 of a small white worm, of which it appeared to be particularly fond. 

 Mr, Logan, acting upon this hint, gathered all of these that he could 

 find, and hid them from the bird under a piece of slate ; when he had 

 collected a considerable number, he prevailed on the robin, by the 

 tempting display of them, to come and pick them, first from the blade 

 of the spade, and afterwards from his hand. This was the beginning 

 of their friendship, which had continued, without interruption, till the 

 time of my visit, and probably continues still. Mr. Logan had never 

 been absent from hqgae for more than a few days at a time during the 

 interval, and had seldom failed to feed him from his hand at least once 

 a day while at home. 



" It occuiTed to me that there might have been a number of birds, 

 one of which had succeeded the other in this intercourse ; but on put- 

 ting a series of cpiestions to find whether there were any grounds for 

 this supposition, I could discover none, for Mr. Logan had never had 

 two pet robins at the same time ; he had never noticed two birds con- 

 tending for his favours ; he had never observed one bird watching 

 eagerly in the hedges while another was feeding upon his hand ; nor 

 had he ever found his daily visitant more shy at any one time than he 

 had been formerly. Throughout the whole period of thirty-two years, 

 or upwards, during which the intimacy had subsisted, the bird had 

 always promptly obeyed his signal. He had, therefore, not the slightest 

 doubt upon his mind that the same identical redbreast had been his 

 familiar during the whole time ; and he thinks it quite impossible that 

 he could be mistaken upon the point. 



" I have only to add that Mr. and Mrs. Gihon, and also Dr. Patrick 

 of Ballymena, assured me, from their knowledge of the man's character, 

 that he is incapable of knowingly attempting to deceive. He is a very 

 respectable person in his rank of life. They have long known him, 

 and they aU concur in this statement. They have also been aware of 

 his familiarity with the bird for several years past, and have seen occa- 

 sional instances of it, though none of them could, of course, pretend to 

 verify the bird's personal identUi/, or to state how long the intimacy 

 had subsisted. 



" Believe me, dear Sir, very truly yours, 



" J. Scott Porter. 



