160 
SYLVIAM. 
no severity of weather. With respect to other food of an un- 
usual kind, it may be mentioned, that a plant of the Fuchsia 
tenettam the “rails” greenhouse was entirely deprived of its 
seed by robins; that in a friend's garden, in the summer of 
3 838, some young birds of the year were captured in the nets 
suspended over the cherry-trees, when in search of the protected 
fruit, and others were often seen partaking freely of the cherries. 
The stomachs of two killed in the month of January for the pur- 
pose of being stuffed, having been sent to me, were found to con- 
tain in addition to gravel, the remains of insects only. One was 
filled with Coleoptera, the other with various insect food. Robins 
are such favourites * as scarcely ever to be shot in Ireland. 
The song of the robin is heard with us throughout the year, 
except at the moulting period. Even in dull and rainy win- 
ter mornings, when all other birds are silent, this favourite 
species may sometimes be heard as soon as twilight commences, 
and long before the sun is up. It will hold forth, too, in the 
autumnal and winter afternoons, until darkness sets in. Its song 
was once heard at the Ealls in a moonlight night, as it has been 
on different occasions by moonlight in the county of Wexford.f 
I have more than once in Belfast listened to the commencement 
of its song in the first week of June, at a quarter before three 
o'clock. So soon after the breeding season as the end of July, its 
song has been renewed at Wolf-hill, and on the 6th of August, 
several had in one year recommenced their strains. Eine autum- 
nal mornings succeeding wet nights, are the favourite time for 
the harmony of this and many other birds. I have seen and heard 
about a dozen of redbreasts perched on the fruit trees in our 
garden, and about twenty-five to thirty yards distant from each 
other, singing at the same time. So many of them sending forth 
* November 23, 1847. Taking shelter to day from a heavy shower in a cottage at 
the side of the river Lagan, near Belfast, a robin came to the door, picked crumbs, 
and flew away. The mistress of the cottage remarked that as winter advanced it 
would take up its abode in the house altogether, as it had done for the last four or 
five winters. But what pleased me, (and induced this note to he made) was, that 
lest the robin should be disturbed, no cat had as formerly been kept in the house, 
since the bird established itself as a winter inmate. 
f Poole. 
