OHARACXEEISTICS OF COMMON BIEDS. 265 



enough. Sparrows are veiy fond of a farm-yard, and generally congregate in 

 its precincts, and where tliere happen to be low shrubs in the immediate 

 vicinity, or small buildings of the pig-sty class near, vnR invariably pop over 

 the lowest part, and immediately shroud themselves in the said shrubs ; 

 seldom perching on a topmost branch, and even if they do, ready at any 

 moment to drop down amongst the foliage. There is not that repose in 

 them that characterises the Finch or Bunting tribes ; they always remind me 

 of the Jay-bird on the top of a post which turns on a pivot. I have remarked 

 in their nesting season, that a Hen-sparrow will supply herself more than 

 once with a new mate, if she be widowed, which when a boy I have often 

 caused her to be, once for experiment's sake ; and yet I have observed that, 

 if anything, in the Winter flocks the hens appear to preponderate ; and the 

 fact of the getting a new husband is the more singular because, as a general 

 proposition, cock-birds are supposed to be liable to more contingencies than 

 hens, both from their own contests and being always about, while the hen is 

 often sitting, and moreover is not so liable to be a mark as her prettier con- 

 sort ; but this, like the hen-Chaffinch flocks, remains difficult of explanation. 

 So much for the Sparrow. 



Another bird, more familiar still, because, for some reason, almost sacred 

 or " tabooed," as the South Sea Islanders call it, is well worthy of some 

 remark ; I mean the Robin. It has always been a matter of astonishment to 

 me that, considering the Robin is rarely or never killed, and that it brings 

 out often two broods, and often lays six eggs, it does not swarm every- 

 where, which it certainly does not, and it is so familiar and fearless that I 

 suppose there is no bird more open to a fair estimate as to number than it 

 is. To be sure he is very pugnacious, and probably fatal battles royal con- 

 tinually take place, but he conceals his death marvellously well, for never do 

 I see a dead Robin. In Spring, the young of this bird are seen everywhere, 

 for they are very clamorous, but, like the swarms of minute Toads which at 

 a particular season bestrew our path, they are consumed somehow and 

 somewhere. It is a singular circumstance, that there are certain of our most 

 familiar songsters, which are the objects of pecuHar regard, rather indis- 

 criminately, it appears to me, now we know the old distich — 



"Martins and Swallows 

 Are God Almighty's scholars; 

 Eobins and Wrens 

 Are God Almighty's cocks and hens." 



Or, as it is sometimes rendered, " fiiends." Here we have a strange assem- 

 blage ; the former, no doubt, are extremely harmless and beautiful little 

 birds, always coursing about in the blue heavens, and doing us yeoman's 

 service, in disposing of that vast insect armament, that, like the Locusts of 

 old, would else be indeed a plague upon the land ; but when we come to the 

 Robin, here is a bold bird, anything but soft in his demeanour, or purely 



