From J. J. Weir   [14 April 1868]¹

His head gardener, an intelligent man, told me he knew of a case of two Starlings building in a cottage near my Brothers,² one was shot in the morning but again there was a pair before noon, another was shot but ere the sun went down the pair was again complete.—

I met with several verifications of the fact that 3 Starlings often have one nest   The gardener & my Brother both had constantly seen 3 together & I asked one person how many Starlings there were to a nest   he said without any hesitation “Three”.—³

There are now some young rooks in the trees at the back of my house nearly a fortnight old, still other rooks are constantly building new nests, and often taking them to pieces & trying another tree.—⁴

I met with a singular case a few days since, a gentleman has a valuable trained Bullfinch (German) for which he gave £10.10.— it pipes a German Waltz, there are about 20 other birds in a large cage in the same room, now when the Bullfinch commences to sing all the others range themselves close to the side of the cage nearest the performer, and actually quarrel for good places, all the birds appearing to listen & take the greatest interest in the performance,—at the same time making a low murmering warbling to each other.—

Believe me | My Dear Sir | Yours very sincerely | J Jenner Weir

C Darwin Esq^r.