180 



EECEEATIVE SCIENCE. 



at home as any of your children. Throw a 

 meal-worm on the floor, his quick eye will 

 detect it, and he will, by his look, ask you 

 for another. Gratify his whim, and pre- 

 sently present one in the palm of your open 

 hand, and, by a graceful sweep on the wing, 

 it will be taken ; and from that moment you 

 and he are the best of friends. 



Now you may enjoy a hearty laugh at 

 his erpense. Set on the table an earthen 

 pan, filled to within an inch of the rim with 

 water, on which float a good-sized bung, or 

 a flat piece of wood measuring say three 

 inches each way ; your friend will alight on 

 the edge instanter, then take to the raft, and 

 there splash and dip till drenched to the 

 skin. His efforts to balance himself as the 

 frail support tilts over with him, will prove the 

 best fun you have had this season ; and it 

 will be better fun still when the " drowned 

 rat" betakes himself to the front of the fire, 

 to shake himself dry in the enjoyment of the 

 warmth. Don't be in haste to pronounce 

 this cruel, for the robin is as fond of water 

 as a No-vfoundland dog. 



The personal bravery of this bonny bii'd 

 is all in keeping with his place in history and 

 tradition. Is there a national folk-lore of 

 any kind that lacks a legend of the robin ? 

 Didn't we all make acquaintance with "Cock 

 E^bin" in nursery rhymes that will never 

 die out of our memories? Haven't we all 

 wept, and are ready to weep again, at the 

 dear old story of the " Babes in the Wood," 

 whose little lifeless forms were buried de- 

 cently with the perfumed strewings of the 

 autumn, in the lonely land of blackberries ? 

 Cannot we trace to that legend very much of 

 the sanctity with which the robin is invested 

 as the bird of privilege, to be protected and 

 cherished in the enjoyment of his native 

 wildness ? All the robin legends have the 

 same tendency to endear him to us. In Brit- 

 tany there is a legend that when the Saviour 

 was bearing his cross, a redbreast plucked a 

 thorn from hia crown, which, piercing its 



breast, dyed it with the stain that has ever 

 since sufficed to link it with our sympathies. 

 In poetry he bears a variety of designa- 

 tions. Shakspere makes a comparison of his 

 "love song," and Ophelia, in her madness, 

 sings of him as "all her joy." Carrington 

 calls him " the bird of autumn," and " sweet 

 household bird." Dr. Jenner describes him 

 as "the sweetest of the feathered throng," 

 and thinks of him as the "helpless bird." 

 Wordsworth as the " pious bird," and Gra- 

 hame, in plain English, calls him "the friend 

 of man." He is too thoroughly English to 

 possess classical distinctions. The Greek 

 poets wanton with swans, and nightingales, 

 and swallows, that " bring the message of 

 the gods ;" and the Soman poets gave their 

 hearts to bees and roses, all-forgetful of the 

 homely redbreast. Even Keats was too 

 much flushed with the wine of an old vin- 

 tage, too much dazed by god Bacchus, and 

 lulled by the fragrance from pagan altars, to 

 befriend the robin with a word of praise. Is it 

 not the robin that Tennyson alludes to as the 



" Wild bird whose warbled liquid sweet 

 Eings Eden tlirougli the budded quicks? " 



Strange omission if the wondrous dirge, 

 " In Memoriam," has no place in it for the 

 very type of tenderness for the "sacred 

 dust." He must be there, though I have 

 failed to find him. One more of these cita- 

 tions must suffice to bring the story of the 

 robin to an end. Grahame has a passage 

 descriptive of the robin's visit to a smithy, 

 which Sydney Yendys may have read ere he 

 penned that famous line, " blows the rough 

 iron of his heart red-hot"— 



" Fearless of the clang and furnace glare, 

 Looks round, arresting the uplifted arm, 

 WhUe on the anvil rests the glowing bar." 



Here, then, we bid him farewell, and 

 when his loud canticle — best of Christmas 

 carols — breaks the silence of the wintry air, 

 we will delight to hail him as Oue Eeiend 

 the eobin. 



Shieley Hibbeed. 



