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are seen in pairs by the end of February ; and sometimes the young have been found in their 

 nests so early as the end of March. In general, however, the eggs are deposited about the 

 beginning of April. On the 9th of May, 1831, I saw a young Robin, nearly fully fledged, in a 

 hedge at St. Bernard's Well, in Edinburgh, the season being rather backward ; and authors have 

 given a much earlier period for their appearance. On the 2nd of June, 1837, after a remarkably 

 severe winter and spring, my son brought me two scarcely fledged birds, which, with the rest, 

 scrambled from the nest ; and these were in all probability of the first brood. 



" The nest is placed under a hedge or bush, on the ground, among herbage, or on a mossy 

 bank. I have never met with it in a tree, shrub, or hedge. It has been variously described by 

 authors, some of whom have given a most marvellous account of it, stating that it is constructed 

 of oak leaves, arched over, and having a long porch built of the same materials before the door. 

 Here is one found in Dalhousie woods, some miles southward of Edinburgh, on the 22nd of April, 

 1837. It is bulky, rather loosely constructed, its external diameter five inches and three quarters, 

 its internal diameter two inches and a half, its walls an inch and three fourths in thickness. Its 

 basis is composed of moss and decayed leaves of trees, with broad blades of grass, the middle 

 layer of fine stalks and leaves of grass, mosses of several species, loosely interwoven, with a few 

 skeleton leaves, the lining of hairs and wool of a white colour, and a quarter of an inch thick. 

 The eggs in this nest were five ; and their general number is five or six. They are of a regular 

 oval form, averaging nine and a half twelfths in length, and seven and a fourth twelfths in their 

 greatest breadth, of a delicate reddish white, faintly freckled with light purplish red, the markings 

 thickest on the larger end, and sometimes forming a kind of belt there. 



" In summer the Robin, although not at all shy, is less frequently observed, as it prefers the 

 woods, thickets, and hedges to the open fields. Although pugnacious enough on ordinary 

 occasions, it is not nearly so bold as many other small birds when its nest is approached by man, 

 but keeps hopping about at some distance, and uttering a feeble cheep, without making any 

 manifest attempts to decoy him away ; yet it will attack a cat, and is more than a match for any 

 bird of its own size. 



" To these observations of my own, I add the following by my friend Mr. Weir : — ' It is a 

 mistaken notion that the Redbreasts during summer remove from the habitations of man, and 

 build their nests in wild and secluded places. At a little distance from my stable a pair have 

 built on the same bank for several successive years. Another pair built on the side of a ditch, a 

 few feet from the door of my shrubbery, and brought to maturity six young ones, although 

 people passed and repassed the nest many times during the day. Another pair have built for 

 several years at the bottom of a hedge not far from my house, and now have young ones (10th 

 June, 1837) which are flying about and are very tame. Many of those, however, which in 

 summer had resided at a distance, approach the abodes of man in winter ; and when there is a 

 fall of snow or a severe frost, there is scarcely a cottage or a house in the country at the doors of 

 which they fail to make their appearance. Sometimes they even tap at the windows with their 

 bills, as if to solicit admission ; and when it is given to them, they will hop up and down the 

 floor, and pick up the crumbs. In every age their familiarity has engaged the attention, and 

 secured to them the protection of mankind. In my parish they are held as sacred by the bird- 

 searching youths, as the Vultures are in the neighbourhood of Grand Cairo, where no one is 



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