Page:The Natural History of Ireland vol1.djvu/184

 no severity of weather. With respect to other food of an un- usual kind, it may be mentioned, that a plant of the Fuchsia tenella in the "Falls" greenhouse was entirely deprived of its seed by robins; that in a friend's garden, in the summer of ]838, some young birds of the year were captured in the nets suspended over the cherry-trees, when in search of the protected fruit, and others were often seen partaking freely of the cherries. The stomachs of two killed in the month of January for the pur- pose of being stuffed, having been sent to me, were found to con- tain in addition to gravel, the remains of insects only. One was filled with Coleoptera, the other with various insect food. Robins are such favourites* as scarcely ever to be shot in Ireland.

The song of the robin is heard with us throughout the year, except at the moulting period. Even in dull and rainy win- ter mornings, when all other birds are silent, this favourite species may sometimes be heard as soon as twilight commences, and long before the sun is up. It will hold forth, too, in the autumnal and winter afternoons, until darkness sets in. Its song was once heard at the Palls in a moonlight night, as it has been on different occasions by moonlight in the county of Wexford.f I have more than once in Belfast listened to the commencement of its song in the first week of June, at a quarter before three o'clock. So soon after the breeding season as the end of July, its song has been renewed at Wolf-hill, and on the 6th of August, several had in one year recommenced their strains. Fine autum- nal mornings succeeding wet nights, are the favourite time for the harmony of this and many other birds. I have seen and heard about a dozen of redbreasts perched on the fruit trees in our garden, and about twenty-five to thirty yards distant from each other, singing at the same time. So many of them sending forth

November 23, 1847. Taking shelter to day from a heavy shower in a cottage at the side of the river Lagan, near Belfast, a robin came to the door, picked crumbs, and flew away. The mistress of the cottage remarked that as winter advanced it would take up its abode in the house altogether, as it had done for the last four or five winters. But what pleased me, (and induced this note to be made) was, that lest the robin should be disturbed, no cat had as formerly been kept in the house, since the bird established itself as a winter inmate.

t Poole.