THE REDBREAST. 
35 
We can remember, indeed, a Robin bopping more 
than once, familiarly, as if aware how safe from 
peril it was at such a moment, upon our own Bible, 
as it lay open before us reading the lessons on a 
Christmas-day. 
We shall close our anecdotes of singular situations 
chosen for building nests, with an instance of a 
Sparrow, who, like the preceding Robin, attached 
herself to a church, but, instead of the parish Bible, 
selected the middle of a carved thistle, which deco- 
rated the top of the pulpit in a chapel at Kennaway, 
in Scotland. It found free ingress and egress, by 
means of the windows, which were left open for the 
purpose of airing the chapel in the week-days. 
This bird might literally be said to have verified the 
words of the Psalmist, “The' Sparrow hath found 
an house, where she may lay her young, even thine 
altars, O Lord.” 
Most of the birds of this tribe are migratory, 
either partially or altogether so; we mean, that 
while the Nightingales, Willow-wrens, and others, 
disappear entirely from our shores, and retire to 
distant and more congenial climates, others, such as 
the Wagtails, only move from one part of England 
to another. The exact times of their appearance 
and departure, it would be desirable to ascertain, 
with reference to state of weather, direction of the 
wind, and prevalence of particular insects, &c. In 
short, the same principle holds good in natural his- 
tory as in other sciences ; namely, the importance of 
noting down observations, however trivial they may 
appear at the time, as the most minute circumstance 
may possibly, when connected with other inquiries, 
D 2 
