172 



THE NATURALIST. 



eggs, however, "were safe but quite cold. I observed that the eggs of the 

 second set were rather smaller and more sparingly coloured than those of 

 the first set. On the 15th the second nest was deserted, possibly owing to 

 my interference ; even when I visited it at eleven o'clock at night, the eggs 

 were still cold. On the 16th and 17th, I made the two following entries in 

 my note book : — 



" May 16th. — Under the verandah there is a small pigeon box contain- 

 ing only two compartments, and in both of these one pair of robins are 

 building. This is the second instance of the kind which has come under 

 my notice lately. I cannot be mistaken, for I several times observed one of 

 the birds fly out of either the right or the left compartment, disappear in a 

 neighbouring hedge, and soon return with a leaf or bit of moss to the one at 

 which it had not been working last." 



" May 17th. — The robins have been hard at work most of the day at 

 both nests in the pigeon box. One of the birds went into the right hand 

 nest under the eaves of the stable and remained there so long that I took a 

 ladder and went to see what the unaccountable little creature was about. I 

 suppose he heard me coming, for when I was nearly half-way up, it flew, 

 trailing in its bill a long piece of hay, with which after dodging among the 

 bushes for a few minutes, it flew into one of the holes of the pigeon box, 

 thus pretty clearly proving that all four nests are the property of one pair of 

 birds. The eggs were quite warm." 



The robins worked hard at the new nests until the 21st, when, without 

 any apparent reason, they discontinued their employment until the 24th, 

 from which date they resumed it at uncertain intervals until the 11th June, 

 when the first egg was deposited in the left nest. Another was added on the 

 14th, but no more. The nest was at that time perfectly finished and very 

 carefully lined, but the other one was so imperfect that when the first egg 

 appeared on the 1 2th, it was lying upon the bare board. The second egg of that 

 nest was laid on the 13th, a third on the 15th and the fourth and last on the 

 16th. On the morning of that day, the female sat upon the four eggs in the 

 right compartment, and in the afternoon upon the two in the left. For several 

 days she changed from nest to nest, and then at length sat steadily upon the 

 four, which was still lying upon the hard board at the bottom of the nest, 

 but in consequence of the frequent changes of temperature they had under- 

 gone three were addled. The one young bird — all the parents had to show 

 for their seventeen eggs and four nests, was carefully fed, and three weeks 

 after it v,^as hatched, it was able to wander about the garden, but for many 



