SAXBY : NESTS AND EGGS OF BRITISH BIRDS. 



171 



aside to take my accustomed look at lier, she was gone, and the scattered 

 fragments of the nest told me too plainly that one even more pitiless than 

 the cold wind had been there. 



A second instance of the kind occurred some vears later. During a run 

 of fine spring weather a hedgesparrow built a nest among some ivy, upon the 

 wall of a house. On the day that the second egg was laid I found the nest 

 completely filled with moss, and soon afterwards the weather became very 

 cold, the rain fell heavily all night, and when the sky cleared about noon, 

 all the moss had disappeared. A third egg was laid next evening and in duo 

 time a brood was hatched, but I never again found moss within the nest. 



Among my notes I find an account of a young meadow pipit, which was 

 reared by a pair of hedgesparrows among their own brood where I placed it 

 one evening, after it had been turned out of its own nest by a cuckoo. 



EoBiN Eedbreast, Sylvia ruhecula. It is well known that this species 

 will rear two broods in a season, and also that the male will build more nests 

 than required for use, but during a pretty extensive experience of the robin 

 and its ways, I have only once met with an instance of a pair of these birds 

 being engaged with more than a single one at a time. This of itself was very 

 unusual, yet, when I state that not satisfied with this deviation from their 

 ordinary habits they abandoned the first two and immediately constructed 

 two more, and that eggs were deposited in all four, doubts as to the accuracy 

 of my observations may so naturally arise that it becomes necessary to enter 

 somewhat minutely into details in order that the reader may judge for 

 himself. 



The first two nests were discovered by me on the 13th April, 1855, 

 under the eaves of a stable roof about twenty feet from the ground. They 

 were within two feet of each other and both were in an equal state of for- 

 wardness, being nearly ready for lining. Having concealed myself among 

 some shrubs, I soon became convinced that they both belonged to one pair 

 of birds. From the 13th to the 20th they continued to work steadily ; then, 

 they ceased for awhile ; and on the 28th, on my going up to see what was 

 the matter I found five eggs in the nest upon the left hand side, the one 

 upon the right hand being still unfinished. The female sat steadily until 

 the 5th May, when she left the eggs and for several days Avas constantly to 

 be seen carrying building materials to the other nest, on visiting which late 

 in the evening of the 1 4th, I found her sitting on six eggs. The nest was 

 then perfectly finished, but the one upon the left hand side was pulled 

 almost to pieces, and a large quantity of moss and hair had disappeared ; the 



