Birds. 647 



Notes on Birds and Birds 1 Nests. The delightful weather which we enjoyed dur- 

 ing the two last months of the year that is past, kept up or awakened the musical pro- 

 pensities of many of our song-birds. Not to speak of the robin and the wren, on many 

 calm mornings and evenings, the whistle of the blackbird, of the missel-bird and of the 

 mavis, here invited us to the woods. And even the songs of the hedge-sparrow, yel- 

 low bunting and skylark were frequently heard when the wind was gentle and the sky 

 serene. But not only did the mildness of the season call forth the vocal powers of 

 these little creatures, in some cases it bewitched them " to forestal sweet St. Valen- 

 tine." And accordingly the birds, 



" In many an orchard, copse and grove, 



Assembled on affairs of love, 



And with much twitter and much chatter, 



Began to agitate the matter." 

 I have heard of a few cases of actual nidification. A nest was found somewhere in 

 the woods of Lasswade, near Edinburgh ; but the particulars of this case I have not 

 learned, The house sparrow has ever been famous for choosing unusual seasons of 

 nidification. Three instances of its building in winter have been mentioned in the 

 ' Zoologist,' I may add a fourth. In the middle of December, last year, in an out- 

 house connected with a farm-yard near the foot of the Pentland hills, a sparrow built 

 its nest, laid five eggs, hatched them and eventually succeeded in rearing the little ones 

 till they were able to evacuate the nest. Another instance of nesting towards the close 

 of last year was communicated to me by Mr. Hector Brown, of Livingstone-mill. In 

 a letter which I lately received from him, he thus writes. " The nest was found by 

 Mr. Robert Buchanan, in December, 1843. On discovering it he took it down, think- 

 it was an old one. But after examining it, he found it to be quite new. It was built 

 of withered grass and moss, and it contained five eggs, about the ordinary size of small 

 birds' eggs. They were spotted all over with red. One of them was broken by acci- 

 dent, and it was evidently undergoing incubation. The nest was afterwards replaced, 

 in order that the bird to which it belonged might be taken ; but the replacing of it in- 

 jured it so much that it was forsaken by its possessor. It was again taken down about 

 three weeks afterwards, when the nest and eggs were found to be much decayed." The 

 nest and eggs described in the extract which I have now given, were probably those of 

 a redbreast. There is only one circumstance which would lead me to hesitate for a 

 moment in affirming that they were ; and that is, the statement that the nest was ta- 

 ken down. 



I may mention another instance of a bird having in all probability prepared a nest 

 during this winter. A labourer, whilst walking through a field a little to the north- 

 west of Mid Calder, found the nest of a partridge, containing the usual number of 

 eggs. He supposed it to be one that had been left by the birds during last spring or 

 summer, with the eggs unincubated. But it appears to me that since the redbreast's 

 eggs referred to in the preceding paragraph, lost their bloom, and were putrescent in 

 the course of a few weeks, it is very unlikely that those of a partridge, lying upon the 

 ground, would remain undecayed throughout an autumn and the half of a winter ; 

 even were it at all probable that they should have escaped, for such a length of time, 

 the prying eyes or other sensitive organs of the many kinds of birds, quadrupeds, and 

 little vermin which are continually prowling about in search of something to satisfy 

 their craving appetites. As this communication has reference principally to the nests 

 of birds, I may here introduce an extract from a letter which I received a few months 



