50 
BIRDS OF LEICESTERSHIRE AND RUTLAND. 
side of the Aylestone Road, and only a few yards from the tram terminus. A 
hen bird, with her six eggs and nest (the latter cut away with its surroundings as 
found), procured in a wood at Knighton on 14th April, 1884, and now — together 
with a male shot at the same time and place — grouped in an effective manner, 
the nest being surrounded by dead leaves, herbage, and primroses modelled from 
nature (like the groups of flowers and foliage in the Natural History galleries at 
South Kensington). A nest containing two eggs — apparently fresh when presented, 
22nd Oct., 1884, — taken from a shed in tlie grounds of Messrs. Harrison and Sons 
at Westcotes. A nest, built in a flower-pot lying on the ground and containing 
four eggs, presented by Mr. Boyes, a nurseryman at Aylestone, in May, 1885. 
A nest, built in an old tea-kettle found in a hedge at Wigston, and containing 
five eggs, presented, 26th June, 1886, by Master F. Pilcher. The ‘Leicester 
Daily Post’ of 28th May, 1885, stated that the occupier of one of the 
“ Sparkenhoe ” allotment gardens discovered a Robin’s nest and brood in a meat- 
tin which, having been emptied of its original contents, he had used for tar, and 
had thrown away. 
Harley wrote; — “There is a story told of it in these parts somewhat re- 
markable : namely, that the young Redbreasts of the year chase to death the 
parent birds.” I have heard this stated by others since Harley’s time, but can 
get no satisfactory details, so imagine it to be one of those bits of popular 
Natural History on a level with the “ fire-spitting ” proclivities of the Toad and 
Newt ! The eggs of the Robin vary considerably both in shape and tint, Mr. 
Davenport reporting a nest of six eggs, pnre white, found near Ashlands in 
May, 1880. 
A white variety was presented to the Museum as a skin, on 18th Jan., 1886, 
by Mr. E. Woodfield, having been shot at Thurmaston some years previously. 
It was wholly of a pure white except the wings, some few primaries of which 
were of the normal colour. 
I feel that I should mention, for the benefit of a few local scientists, that the 
hen of the Robin is not wholly brown, but ahvays has a red breast, which is 
sometimes more brightly coloured than in the male. The “ brown hen ” recorded 
is the young bird in its first plumage. 
In Rutland. — Resident and common. — Mr. Horn reports the rearing of a 
hrood in 1884, in the disused nest of a Hedge-Sparrow, in his garden, at “The 
Views,” Uppingham. 
NIGHTINGrALE. Daulias luscinia (Linnaeus). 
A summer migrant, sparingly distributed, and breeding. — IMr. Babington 
(Appendix ‘ Potter,’ p. 66) noted its occurrence about Leicester, Rothley, 
Wanlip, etc. Harley recorded it from the woods of Evington, Groby, Martinshaw, 
Oakley, and Piper; from Birstall plantations, Buddon Wood, the Outwoods at 
Loughborough, Stoneygate plantations. Whetstone Gorse, covers, and thick belts 
