Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 19, Number 96, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 August 1898 — CURIOUS NESTING PLACE. [ARTICLE]

CURIOUS NESTING PLACE.

A Letter Box That Was In Constaat Ise by Birds. In the year 1888 a pair of great tits built in a wooden letter box, which stood in the road in the village of Rowfa nt, Sussex, into which letters, etc., were posted, and which was cleared daily, says the Pall Mall Magazine. Unfortunately, one of the birds was killed by a boy and the nest was not finished. In 1889 a pair completed it and laid seven eggs, and were sitting; but one day an unusual number of postcards was dropped in, nearly filling the box and causing the birds to desert it, when the nest and the eggs were removed. In 1890 a pair built a new nest, the hen laid seven eggs and succeeded in rearing five young, although the letters continued to be posted daily, and when taken out were often found lying on the back of the sitting bird, which never left the nest. The birds went in and out by the slit for the letters. Connected with the robin there is a sacred tradition accounting for the color of the bird’s breast, to which I need not further allude, except to hazard the guess that the little songster is piously disposed, so that one is scarcely surprised to hear that on several occasions he, or she rather, has built in a church and once affixed a nest to the Bible as it lay on the reading desk. It is gratifying to learn that the vicar would not allow her to be disturbed and provided himself with another copy of the sacred volume from which to read the lessons.