Birds. 5263 



But the cat ! ah, the cat ! The cat, you know, does a great deal of 

 mischief besides the killing of my household pet, the mavis ; such as 

 eating the cold meat and fowls, running away with the puddings and 

 the fish, drinking the cream (not to speak of porter and spirits), 

 and breaking the dishes, with a whole host of other such-like things. 

 In this case, however, I don't think that she was once mentioned or 

 thought of. Well, time wore on, and still the tickets were disappear- 

 ing, to the no small surprise of all in the house, for all were now on 

 the alert to detect, if possible, the mysterious thief, but to no purpose, 

 for despite their watchfulness the sticks were robbed. Old Father 

 Time, however, the revealer of many secrets, at last unveiled the mys- 

 tery. The lady, rising one morning rather early, and having gone to 

 her bed-chamber window, which looks into the garden, observed a 

 blackbird hopping about amongst her now almost ticketless bed of 

 annuals. At this, however, she was not at all surprised, as birds of 

 all sorts were numerous in the garden, from their being encouraged. 

 But judge her amazement when she beheld blackie seize hold of one 

 of the remaining tickets, and tug and pull most lustily to get it disen- 

 gaged, but failed in doing so. The bird, however, nothing daunted 

 and not to be beaten, tried another, this time succeeding (this may 

 explain why some were left here and there, as already mentioned), 

 and, flying away with it, disappeared amongst the branches of a pear 

 tree further up the garden. "What!" wondered the lady to herself, 

 "can this actually be the thief that has taken my tickets, and eluded 

 detection so long ? " Well, we shall see by and by. Accordingly, 

 on going to the tree alluded to she was most agreeably surprised at 

 seeing, in a cavity, all her lost tickets, in the form of a black- 

 bird's nest ! 



The Ring Ouzel (Tardus torquatns). Rare. A few breed now 

 and then amongst the hills in the higher districts of the county. 



The Hedgesparrow, Gray Robin (Accentor modularis). We have 

 this very modest, lovely, unassuming little bird generally distributed, 

 but nowhere in abundance. Wherever there is a patch of whin of 

 any extent, or a nice bit of hedge, you may rely on finding at least a 

 pair. I remember once finding a nest of these birds, with young, so 

 late as the 19th of September. 



Robin Redbreast (Sylvia rubecula). This rather bold, red- 

 breasted gentleman, or cock-robin, as we call him here, is somewhat 

 more numerous than the last. Is it not very strange, not to say 

 lamentable, that even in these enlightened days of ours there should 

 be many who still believe and say that the wren is the female of this 



