REDBREAST. 27 
taining several eggs was taken near York the first week in 
February, 1844, there being snow on the ground at the time, 
and the temperature ranging from 30° to 23° Fahrenheit: 
another, which had five eggs, was found at Moreton in the 
Marsh, in the second week of January, 1848; another, with 
the like number of eggs, in a garden at Wheldrake, near 
York, the 10th: of the same month; and one, also with 
eggs, near Belfast, on the 20th. of February, 1846. A nest 
with two eggs, on which the hen bird was sitting, was 
found near the end of November, 1851, at Gribton, Dum- 
friesshire, the seat of Francis Maxwell, Esq. 
The nest of the Robin, which is built of fine stalks, moss, 
dried leaves, and grass, and lined with hair and wool, with 
sometimes a few feathers, 1s generally placed on a bank 
under the shelter of a bush, or sometimes in a bush itself, 
at a low height from the ground, and occasionally in a hole 
in a wall covered with ivy, a crevice in a rock, among fern 
and tangled roots—the entrance perhaps being through some 
very narrow aperture, or an ivy-clad tree. It measures about 
five inches and three quarters across, and two and a half in 
internal diameter. It is concealed with great care and success. 
His late Majesty King William the Fourth had a part of 
the mizen-mast of the Victory, against which Lord Nelson 
was standing when he was mortally wounded, placed in a 
building in the grounds of Bushy Park when he resided 
there. A large shot had passed through this part of the 
mast, and in the hole it had left, a pair of Robins built their 
nest and reared their young. ‘The relic was afterwards removed 
to the dining-room of the house, and is now in the armoury 
of Windsor Castle. ‘Victoria pacem.’ 
‘A Robin,’ says Mr. Jesse, ‘lately began its nest in a myrtle 
which was placed in the hall of a house belonging to a friend 
of mine in Hampshire. As the situation was considered rather 
an objectionable one, the nest was removed. The bird then 
began to build another on the cornice of the drawing-room, but, 
as this was a still more violent intrusion, it was not allowed to 
be completed. The Robin, thus baffled in two attempts, began 
a third nest in a new shoe, which was placed on a shelf in 
my friend’s drawing-room. It was permitted to go on with 
its work until the nest was completed, but as the new shoe 
was likely to be wanted, and as it would not be benefited by 
being used as a cradle, the nest was carefully taken out, and 
deposited in an old shoe, which was put in the situation of 
