164 
SYLVIAM. 
Two ladies at Larne, believing that a robin, which they fed at 
the window-sill, was disposed to nidify, placed a box within the 
porch of their house, for its accommodation. The kind act was 
at once understood and appreciated by the bird, which built its 
nest, and reared its brood in the box. The ladies so far assisted in 
providing building materials, as to pull hairs out of an old chair 
cover ; the robin flew regularly for these, and with them the nest 
was wholly lined. That the noisy operations of the ship-builder 
will not prevent the selection of a place for nidification, in his im- 
mediate vicinity was shown by a circumstance which came under 
my own observation. On May 13th, 1836, I saw a redbreast's 
nest, containing young, in a small round aperture apparently where 
a knot had been in one of the timbers of the ship “ Dunlop," 
then under repair in the dry dock at Belfast. It was built inside 
the vessel about three yards from the top of the timbers, (the deck 
being oft*,) and at the time of its construction, the deafening pro- 
cess of driving in the tree-nails was carried forward occasionally 
close to the nest. An observant friend, discovering a redbreast's 
nest, remarked the apparent stupidity of the bird, which having 
been lifted off the eggs and laid on his open hand, sought not, and 
indeed seemed to want the power, to escape. He placed it in the 
nest again, and returning the next day found the young brood 
out. The appearance of the bird on the previous day, it was now 
presumed, had been caused by its intentness on the last stage of 
incubation. I have seen young robins flying about Belfast on the 
12th of May. In the very early spring of 1846, a nest with eggs 
was discovered in the vicinity of that town, on the 20th of 
February. 
A note of February 18th, 1838, reminds me that a young robin 
of the year, which was caught late in the preceding autumn, and 
kept for some time in a large cage at the Falls, in company with 
other birds, made its escape, but, on the appearance of snow, two 
months afterwards, returned, when it gladly renewed its acquaint- 
ance with the lady of the house, and a servant, both of whom had 
been in the habit of feeding it, — the bird at once markedly exhi- 
bited its former partiality towards them, in preference to the other 
