on the Study of Natural History. 241 



The Robin Redbreast, — Mr. Swainson has taught that this 

 bird is eminently frugivorous. " Country gentlemen," Mr. 

 Swainson says, " complain of their fruit being devoured by 

 birds, and orders are given for an indiscriminate destruction 

 of birds' nests. The sparrows, more especially, are perse- 

 cuted without mercy, as being the chief aggressors ; while the 

 robin redbreast, conceived to be the most innocent inhabitant 

 of the garden, is fostered and protected. Now, a little ac- 

 quaintance with the natural history of these two birds would 

 set their characters in opposite lights. The sparrows, more 

 especially in country situations, very rarely frequent the gar- 

 den : because, grain being their chief food, they search for it 

 round the farmyard, the rick, and the stable ; they resort to 

 such situations accordingly. The robins, on the other hand, 

 are the great devourers of all the small fruits ; they come from 

 the nest just before the currants and gooseberries are ripe, 

 and they immediately spread themselves over the adjacent 

 gardens, which they do not quit so long as there is anything 

 to pillage. It may appear strange, as it certainly is, that no 

 writer on our native birds should have been aware of these 

 facts; but it is only a proof how little those persons — who 

 are, nevertheless, interested in knowing such things — attend 

 to the habits and economy of beings continually before their 

 eyes. In like manner, we protect blackbirds for their song, 

 that they may rob us of our wall and standard fruits with im- 

 punity.'' (Mr. Swainson' s Discourse, p. 144, 145.) 



Alas ! poor Cock Robin ! What shall I say in thy behalf, 

 against an authority reputed so impressive ? Yet injustice 

 has surely been done thee, and thy case should be counter- 

 pleaded. — In the Isle of Ely, and that part of Cambridgeshire 

 which intervenes the town of Cambridge and the Isle of Ely, 

 fruit-gardens are numerous ; the acres that they in their ag- 

 gregate occupy, and the fruit that is produced in them, are 

 points well worth the attention of students of statistics and of 

 commercial economy. In these gardens robins abound, and 

 so well regarded are they by the proprietors of the gardens, 

 and by the fruit gatherers, that the robins are, in some of 

 the gardens at least, on the happiest terms of confidence and 

 familiarity with the former parties, the young speckle-breasted 

 robins especially. It is not a very rare sight, to see one of the 

 latter sitting on the rim of the very basket which the currant 

 gatherer is holding ; and a frequent sight, to see one or more 

 perched upon the edges of baskets which may be standing 

 round about ; not, reader, to partake of the ripe currants — 

 no — but to dart down in an instant on the insects which the 

 currant gatherer's disturbing of the branches and leaves of the 

 Vol, VriL — No. 48. r 



