THE LADIES 1 MAGAZINE OF GARDENING. 
139 
sternly at my eyes, before lie gave it to the young ones; but the lady 
could never muster courage to go to the nest while I was in the shed. 
This had vexed Bob very much, and although the five young ones 
were reared, he bore it in mind ; for in about a week after they left the 
nest a new nest was begun ; and this second, as if purely to vex his wife, 
was just over my head, between the tiles and a rafter, assisted a little by 
a thin lath that had been stuck in between the tiles. This nest had three 
eggs in it when I missed both the birds. I took a flower-pot, and raising 
myself looked into the nest, when the accident was plain. There had 
been so little room for the birds to sit in, that they had been picking the 
mortar to give room for their heads, and about four inches of it had 
given way and fallen right across the nest, which accounted for their 
leaving. 
When all was fed and settled, about ten or eleven o’clock Bob would 
perch near me, and divert me with an hours song or more. This was a 
very different music from the hurry-balloo that he makes morning and 
evening, that being a song of defiance, and frequently answered by 
another; but these domestic notes are really delightful, with many varia¬ 
tions, and not to be heard at twenty yards distant. This would be Bob’s 
note were he in a cage, but it would be some trouble feeding him, to keep 
him in health. 
But I must also tell you, that Bob was not devoid of interested 
motives; as we have a small pan slung to a rafter, out of the reach of 
the sparrows and mice, into which we have been in the habit of putting 
the crumbs from the bread-basket. This I suppose was the ruin of Bob, 
for all that autumn he would get into the pan, and so rub himself in it that 
he could not make use of his wings, in which state I am afraid the cats 
caught him. The heat of his body, which made him rub himself among 
the crumbs in the pan, may have arisen from the salt in the bread. 
Chfxsea, 
Feb. 22, 1841. 
ON BIRDS OF PREY. 
BY MR. MAIN. 
Most of these are included in the order Accipitres or Raptores; and among 
these some of the largest are the sea-eagle, an inhabitant of several parts 
of Great Britain, but by no means plentiful; the golden eagle, on moun¬ 
tains in Ireland' and Wales, and the ringtail eagle, in size and colour like 
the last, but distinguished by a white band across the tail. The Erne is a 
