THE REDBREAST. 
33 
to do, the window open. How long the bird had 
carried on her operations unnoticed, we know not ; 
hut a servant, accidentally moving the drapery of 
one of the window-curtains, discovered, in the folds 
of a festoon, the Robin s nest. 
In this instance, the bird availed itself of a situa- 
tion, in which, during the greater portion of the 
day, she was in solitude and silence; but solitude 
and silence do not seem essential to all Robin Red- 
breasts, for we lately heard of a pair which took pos- 
session of a pigeon-hole book-shelf in a school, which 
was constantly frequented by seventy children. The 
hole selected was at the farthest extremity of the 
room, immediately above the heads of a junior class 
of little girls, from four to five years of age, who, 
much to their credit, never disturbed the bird. 
There she laid and hatched five eggs. One of the 
young ones died in a few days, and the body was 
carried off by the parent-birds. The remaining four 
were regularly fed in the presence of the children, 
and in due time reared. Soon after their departure, 
the old bird repaired the nest, and laid three more 
eggs, which she attended to with the same perse- 
verance and success. W e have often alluded to the 
frequent return of birds to the same nests, and, per- 
haps, the most singular feature in this anecdote is, 
that about twelve years ago, a Robin builfc in that 
identical pigeon-hole. Why the visits were not re- 
newed every year, it is impossible to conjecture, but 
that the pair of the present year were either the 
same old birds, or young ones of the brood then 
reared in it, is more than probable, from the cir- 
cumstance of this pigeon-hole being again selected ; 
VOL. II. I) 
