i8 
PICTURES OF BIRD LIFE. 
dead leaves, and hair, occasionally mixed with a few feathers. The eggs are 
usually from five to seven in number, of a freckled yellow or reddish-brown 
colour, and two or three broods are produced each season. It breeds almost up 
to the Arctic Circle, and is among the first birds to visit Sweden and the latest 
to leave in autumn. The old bird sits very closely on the nest, evidently depending 
for concealment on the close assimilation of the nest to the locality where it is 
placed, but soon abandons the young ones when they are once fledged. Few 
sights are more miserable in a garden than to see these little orphans hopping 
about in deplorable plight, scarcely able to use their wings, and a ready prey 
for cats. 
Jesse relates many anecdotes of unusual situations for Robins’ nests. A waggon 
had been packed with boxes and straw at Walton Heath for some days, during which 
a pair of Robins built among the straw, and had hatched their young. When it 
was sent down to Worthing, one of the old birds accompanied it, finding food 
for the little ones from the hedges by the wayside ; and as the waggoner took 
care not to disturb the straw more than was necessary, the young ones, together 
with the parent, returned safely in the same manner, the distance travelled in the 
meantime not being less than one hundred miles. Again, “ His late Majesty 
William IV., when residing in Bushey Park, had a part of the mizenmast of 
the Victory , against which Lord Nelson was standing when he received his fatal 
wound, deposited in a small temple in the grounds of Bushey House. A large 
shot had passed completely through this part of the mast, and in the hole a 
pair of Robins had built their nest, and reared a brood of young ones. It was 
impossible to look at this without reflecting on the scene of blood which had 
occurred to produce so snug and peaceable a retreat for a nest of harmless 
Robins.” A still more affecting instance of the confidence of the Robin is 
related of a pair which built for two years together on the Bible as it lay 
on the reading-desk in the parish church of Hampton-in-Arden, Warwick¬ 
shire. The worthy vicar would on no account suffer the birds to be disturbed ; 
and another Bible was brought into church, from which he used to read 
the lessons. 
Valentine, in the “ Two Gentlemen of Verona,” is known to be in love 
because “ he has learnt to relish a love-song, like a Robin Redbreast; ” but from 
very early days English poetry has celebrated the Robin chiefly for its piety. 
Izaak Walton had this in his mind when he spoke of “ the honest Robin, that 
loves mankind both alive and dead.” It is to the ballad of “ The Children in 
