The first that we shall narrate happened in our own village. Two male Redbreasts were captured and confined in the same cage. From the moment of their imprisonment they seemed entirely to have laid aside their usual amiable and social demeanour; morning, noon, and night they squabbled and pecked each other, and fought with an enduring rancour which plainly showed that they each grudged every atom of food or drop of water obtained by the other. This state of affairs was at last brought to a very unexpected termination; one of the captives broke its leg, and forthwith the conduct of its companion was completely changed; it at once took charge of the helpless invalid with as much tenderness as if it had been one of its own young, fed and tended it until the limb was restored; and, strange to say, even after the invalid was strong and well again, neither of the birds ever showed the slightest inclination to renew former hostilities. An instance of the truly parental affection they often exhibit towards the young of entirely different species is mentioned by Naumann, who upon one occasion introduced an unfledged Linnet into the cage of a Redbreast. No sooner did the hungry nestling begin to clamour for food than the parental feelings and sympathy of the Robin were awakened; it at once hopped off to procure a dainty mouthful, which it placed tenderly in the youngster's gaping beak, repeating the performance till the calls of hunger were completely satisfied. Even in its native woods, and surrounded by its own kind, the Redbreast will occasionally contract a close friendship with a bird of another species. Posslen mentions a pretty instance of this social tendency as having occurred in Germany. "In a wood near Köthen," he says, "a Redbreast was found to have actually deposited six eggs in the same nest with the six eggs laid by a Linnet, the two mothers brooding side by side until the nestlings made their appearance." [Illustration: THE GARDEN REDSTART (_Ruticilla phœnicura_ or _Phœnicura ruticilla_).] * * * * *