*>} 
further afield, for fresh material. V/hen, at length, we 
decided to interfere in her behalf, the shelf remained 
almost perfectly bare. But within an hour after we had 
nailed a piece of scantling 2 inches wide to its outer edge 
the bird began to make some progress and by the end of 
the next two days her nest was completed. 
It consisted of no more than a shapeless mat of 
the material above mentioned, covering the entire shelf 
(about 2 feet x 10 inches in surface area) to a depth of 
from two inches to four inches, and held in place by our 
cleat, no mud being used. Somewhere near the middle of 
this mass of trash the bird laid her eggs and hatched them 
successfully. I saw her taking food to the young for a 
week or more and without doubt she got them out safely in 
the end, but that I did not see. It would be interesting 
to know whether or not this was a young Robin. Quite 
evidently she had no knowledge of the art of nest building 
usually characteristic of her kind, but knew no more than 
to bring together a lot of stuff so light and fragile 
that the merest breath of wind would sweep it off the 
shelf. Another interesting question is as to how the 
Robin could have retained her eggs so long. She did not 
lay them until more than two weeks after the re st was 
begun yet when she began it she must have expected to 
deposit them within a few days; such, at least, being cus¬ 
tomary with birds of her species. 
