REDBREAST. 81 
Mr. Thompson, of Belfast, mentions one which built its 
nest in the curtain of a bed in an occupied house, but the 
window being closed against it, it laid an egg on the window- 
sill. This circumstance caused pity for the bird, the window 
was re-opened, and the egg placed in the nest, where the 
usual number was duly deposited and incubated. 
Mr. John Cope, of Abbots Bromley, near Stafford, has 
obliged me with the following instances:—‘A pair of Redbreasts 
built their nest on a part of a steam-engine continually in 
motion night and day, and close to the colliers at work, at 
the Heath colliery, Westbromwich, belonging to the Earl of 
Dartmouth, I believe in the year 1846 or 1847. Another 
pair, and a pair of Spotted Flycatchers, each built their nests 
in one post of a hovel in my orchard this year; the nests 
not more than six inches apart. One of the Redbreasts 
became attached to me by some means unknown; it attended 
me always when in the garden, and hopped on my feet when 
I turned up a worm. It now attends at the door, ‘and will 
enter the house and perch near me for crumbs.’ 
In such situations it is ordinarily placed, but a variety of 
others are at times chosen, some of then whimsical enough. 
One pair built their nest in a disused saw-pit, and although 
after the female had begun to sit it was again worked in, 
and though the persons employed continued at their occupation 
close to the nest every day, during the hatching of the eggs 
and the rearing of the young, yet the old birds, apparently 
without alarm, completed their task. To begin a nest in a 
saw-pit in which work is being carried on, and to rear their 
young without fear of the men, is quite a common occurrence. 
Another pair reared three successive broods in an uninhabited 
cottage, adjoining a blacksmith’s forge, the first nest being 
built in a child’s cart, hung against the wall, and this, though 
constantly inspected by the neighbours who became aware of 
the circumstance, the second on a shelf close to an old mouse- 
trap, and the third on another shelf on a bundle of papers. 
The passing and re-passing of persons by the nest all through 
the day is often seemingly altogether unheeded. In one 
instance a nest has been observed placed in a school-room where 
there was a continual noise throughout the day. One has been 
known to be built in a watering-pot, hung up to the branch 
of an apple tree by a path in a garden, and several other 
Instances of the like kind have occurred. Another in the 
