THE REDBREAST. 
161 
at one time satisfies me that the young birds of the year bear their 
part in the concert, and the fact of every individual in view trilling 
forth its notes, favours the idea that the female bird is possessed 
of song. When the ground has been covered with snow, of more 
than a week's continuance at mid-winter, and the sun did not break 
forth all day, I have heard several singing, and answering each 
other as at a more genial season • a wild bird, too, has been ob- 
served to wash, at such a time as in summer. All this would indi- 
cate a seeming indifference to cold, of which we, however, know 
these birds to be very susceptible, leaving as th.ey do various con- 
tinental countries, on the approach of winter, and betaking 
themselves to milder climates. In snares, set for small birds 
during frost, I have remarked that redbreasts were generally the 
first victims. Their extreme tameness before a fall of snow, un- 
erringly shows their sensibility to the coming change, and in 
several instances has led me to prognosticate it with certainty, 
when no other indication was perceptible. 
That a single redbreast, or a pair of these birds, has generally a 
particular beat or range I have had abundant evidence, (vide 
Dovastonin Loudon's Mag. Nat. Hist. vol. vi. p. 3,) as I have also 
had, that they very frequently keep within it as spring advances, 
instead of retiring to the thickest woods to build, as stated by 
many authors. In towns, they have been known to me as fre- 
quenting a certain quarter throughout the year. Tor two years this 
occurred in our own office-houses, and in each ' season two 
broods were reared. * In one instance the nest was placed on the 
top of a wall supporting the roof of the gateway, and in the other, 
on the part of the side-wall of a three-story building, the only 
approach to it being through small apertures, about two inches in 
diameter, cut in trap-doors on the first and second floors to admit 
the rope attached to a pulley. Perched on the neighbouring 
buildings, these birds gave forth their song, and for about the 
latter half of the month of October, 1831, when the days were 
very fine and bright, one regularly frequented the stable, and, 
when perched upon the stalls, sang without being in any degree 
disturbed by the general business of the place going forward, even 
VOL. I. M 
