Page:The Natural History of Ireland vol1.djvu/186

 within two or three feet of his station. A pair of redbreasts that were assiduously watched during their nidification in the conser- vatory attached to the town- house of an acquaintance, were one morning found in great consternation, in consequence of their nest having been taken possession of by a bat, which they event- ually compelled to change its quarters. The number of eggs is not uncommonly five ; rarely more.

Pour rather singular instances of the redbreast building within doors near Belfast in the summer of 1833 here follow. In all of them, shrubberies and plantations were quite near to the chosen sites. The first two, communicated by a relative, occurred at Wolf-hill. He observes:—"The two nests of a robin in the carpenter's loft are placed on the corner of the wall supporting the roof; the foundation that serves for both nests, is a quantity of large wood-shavings, of which the sides of the nests are likewise formed, together with green moss, beech leaves, wool, tufts of cow- hair, &c, but they are lined with horse-hair only. The mass of mate- rials of which these two nests are made, is about a foot and a half in length, eight inches in breadth, and five inches in thickness. In wet days the male bird kept much within the loft, and sang there. The carpenter tells me that only one of them collected the leaves and shavings : tins individual was known from its wanting the tail ; it made very free with his pot of grease, and picked from it while in his hand : a brood was reared in one of these nests, but two eggs laid in the other were not incubated. On another occasion the nest was built in the joist-hole of a wall, in course of erection, the completion of which made the removal of the nest unavoidable, and it was placed in an adjoining aperture of the same kind. The parent bird after looking for some time about the spot where the nest had been, rejoined her young, one of which was killed by falling out of its domicile in the course of removal ; and here she did not long remain undisturbed, as in the breaking out of a door within a foot of the nest, the mortar and stones fell perilously near her, but she nevertheless did not desert her young."

At Fort William, the seat of a relative, the following circumstance occurred. In a pantry, the window of which was kept open during