FREAKISH HABITS.
Two oddities of habit—one in a bird, the other in a plant— are reported to me by credible witnesses. One has discovered within his premises in Monmouth, five thrushes' nests all built under roofs of out-buildings, pigsties, barns and the rest, and he says that during eighty years' experience he has never known the like. Now, the blackbird is fond of an outbuilding. One built in my garden on a beam behind the shelter of a hanging bunch of onions of some antiquity ; but my experience is much the same as my correspondent's with regard to thrushes. Doubtless they like a solid platform.. I found one once on the top of a tit-box hung against an oak tree ; and I have known them to build in a haystack and even on the ground ; but their affection for the pigsty certainly suggests that they have changed habit in obedience to the need for a roof over their heads. Certainly I have never known of so many nests begun and left unfinished ; and excessive rain was the cause.
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