Page:The Natural History of Ireland vol1.djvu/188

 Two ladies at Larne, believing that a robin, which they fed at the window-sill, was disposed to nidify, placed a box within the porch of their house, for its accommodation. The kind act was at once understood and appreciated by the bird, which built its nest, and reared its brood in the box. The ladies so far assisted in providing building materials, as to pull hairs out of an old chair cover ; the robin flew regularly for these, and with them the nest was wholly lined. That the noisy operations of the ship-builder will not prevent the selection of a place for nidification, in his im- mediate vicinity was shown by a circumstance winch came under my own observation. On May 13th, 1836, I saw a redbreast's nest, containing young, in a small round aperture apparently where a knot had been in one of the timbers of the ship " Dunlop," then under repair in the dry dock at Belfast. It was built inside the vessel about three yards from the top of the timbers, (the deck being off,) and at the time of its construction, the deafening pro- cess of driving in the tree-nails was carried forward occasionally close to the nest. An observant friend, discovering a redbreast's nest, remarked the apparent stupidity of the bird, which having been lifted off the eggs and laid on his open hand, sought not, and indeed seemed to want the power, to escape. He placed it in the nest again, and returning the next day found the young brood out. The appearance of the bird on the previous day, it was now presumed, had been caused by its intentness on the last stage of incubation. I have seen young robins flying about Belfast on the 12th of May. In the very early spring of 1846, a nest with eggs was discovered in the vicinity of that town, on the 20th of February.

A note of February 18th, 1838, reminds me that a young robin of the year, which was caught late in the preceding autumn, and kept for some time in a large cage at the Falls, in company with other birds, made its escape, but, on the appearance of snow, two months afterwards, returned, when it gladly renewed its acquaint- ance with the lady of the house, and a servant, both of whom had been in the habit of feeding it, — the bird at once markedly exhi- bited its former partiality towards them, in preference to the other