PRELIMINARY NOTICES. 



vol. ii. page 113, states some curious facts relative to birds for- 

 saking their nests. He says that " the redbreast, wren, black- 

 bird, song-thrush, missel-thrusli, and, he thinks, almost every other 

 bird, will forsake their first nest for the season, if frightened 

 out of it once or twice, and will immediately begin to build 

 another ; but they will not forsake their nest while laying, handle 

 the eggs as much as you please, or change them one for the 

 other; or even if you take one out every day, the same hen will 

 return, and lay, in the empty nest. A redbreast will sit on any 

 egg substituted for its own, even a blackbird's or thrush's, and 

 will breed up the young ones; a hedge-sparrow will do the 

 same ; and, most probably, any soft-billed bird. Later in the 

 season, after a bird has made one or two nests, it will not for- 

 sake its nest when sitting, drive it out as often as you please ; 

 some will even suffer themselves to be taken out and put back 

 again without leaving the nest." 



In regard to the Goldfinch, when it breeds in gardens, I can 

 say that it builds sometimes a few feet only from the ground, 

 in an espalier, for instance; and pass to it as close as you please 

 during incubation, it usually remains in the nest. The greatest 

 enemies of birds that build in such places are eats. 



Birds of London, page 75, et seq. The Corvus monedula, or 

 Jack-Daw frequents some of the church towers of London, 

 particularly St. Michael's, Cornhill; and it is said that the Fa!co 

 tinnunculus, or common Hawk, builds in some of the more ele- 

 vated parts of St. Paul's Cathedral. 



I heard the Song-Thrush, Turdus musicus, singing on one 

 of the trees in Berkeley Square, March 22, 1828. I am quite 

 certain of this fact, as I took care to see the bird. 



Mr. Britton informs me that, in the winter, Tomtits, Parus 

 caruleus, frequent his garden in Burton Street, Burton Crescent, 

 to the number of four or six at a time : the Chaffinch, Fnn~ 

 gilla ccelebs, has also been observed in the same garden : and 

 last summer, 1828, the Whitethroat, Mvtacilla sylvia, poured 

 its pleasing song in the same place. It is scarcely necessary to 



