Birds. 383 



him, when, with one of these in his little bill, he fluttered from the 

 plantation to the wall, and a pufF of wind met him by the way. Hav- 

 ing laid his burden in its place, away he merrily flew to a heap of old 

 sticks ; and like a clever little boy, who, having done a clever little 

 thing, claps his hands and laughs at his own prowess, he flapped his 

 wings and sung his song. 



A very singular situation for a nest was once chosen by a redbreast 

 {Sylvia ruhecula) at Kelso, in the year 1835. In a letter which I then 

 received from a friend, Mr. William Darling, jun., he thus writes : — 

 " There is a great curiosity here at present, — a redbreast's nest built 

 on a piece of wood in a Wright's shop. The birds never mind the 

 men working, but carry on their arduous task of building. There are 

 plenty of materials near at hand, as most of the nest is composed of 

 soft cuttings of wood." This letter is dated March 27. In this case, 

 then, both the locality and materials of the nest, and the time of the 

 year, are somewhat singular. 



I have often heard of the parasitic disposition of the house-sparrow 

 {Fringilla domestica), but never have I personally ascertained the fact. 

 Avicenna, Albertus Magnus, Batgowski, and Linnaeus, tell us of a 

 contest between a window-swallow and a house-sparrow. The latter 

 having taken possession of the nest of the former, a determined battle 

 ensued between the proprietor and the invader, in which the sparrow 

 came ofi* in the first instance victorious, from its cunningly remaining 

 in the nest. The swallow, however, was fully revenged; for summon- 

 ing its companions to assist, they brought a quantity of nest-mortar, 

 and entombed the sparrow alive. Dr. Paxton, in his Poems, relates 

 a similar occurrence which took place while he was present; and Mr. 

 Weir, in Professor Macgillivray's ' British Birds,' tells us of a third. 

 I am happy to add a fourth testimony. An eye-witness, Mr. John 

 Neil, jun., informs me that at Selkirk, I think in the year 1837, he and 

 twenty other individuals saw two martins entomb in their nest a spar- 

 row which had taken possession of it. Afterwards they took down 

 the nest to let out the prisoner, but the felon was dead. 



A pair of tomtits [Parus cceruleus) have tried for many years to fix 

 their nest in the shaft of a pump-well in this neighbourhood. 



A few years ago Mr. Archibald Walker, Colinton, discovered in 

 C alder wood, the solitary nest of a bird which generally nestles in 

 colonies. While wandering in a certain part of the wood, known by 

 the name of the " Dark walk," he saw situated on a lofty and almost 

 inaccessible branch of a tree, a nest resembling that of the carrion 

 crow, or of the owl. On making his way up to it, to his surprise he 



