Sir, – I fully appreciated the Irishwoman's Diary of Fiona Gartland (July 17th) on the uniquely intrusive and inquisitive nature of the Erithacus Rubecula.
I have recently hosted a temporary home for one on a coal shed shelf. This was not just another typical quirky and imaginative choice of maternity home by the robin but a last act of desperation in the face of surviving magpie and grey squirrel predation.
Watching the delightful events unfold over several weeks, I consider myself now something of a robinologist. I would posit that the eternal, transcendent rapport between our two species may be born out of our mutual obsession with territory and possession. The robin is as beguiled by our behaviour as we are of his. Aithníonn spideog spideog eile. – Yours, etc,
DESMOND FAGAN,
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Rathfarnham,
Dublin 14.