340 INSECTIVOROUS BIRDS. 



in warbling echoes from the low copse and shady glen. 

 Our American bird has not, however, the compass and 

 variety of that familiar and much loved songster ; but his 

 freedom and willingness to please, render him an univer- 

 sal favorite, and he now comes, as it were, with the wel- 

 come prelude to the general concert, about to burst upon 

 us from all the green woods and blooming orchards. With 

 this pleasing association with the opening season, amidst 

 the fragrance of flowers, and the improving verdure of the 

 fields, we listen with peculiar pleasure to the simple song 

 of the Robin. The confidence he reposes in us by mak- 

 ing his abode in our gardens and orchards, the frankness 

 and innocence of his manners, besides his vocal powers 

 to please, inspire respect and attachment even in the 

 truant school-boy, and his exposed nest is but rarely mo- 

 lested. He owes, however, this immunity in no small 

 degree to the fortunate name which he bears ; as the 

 favorite Robin Redbreast, said to have covered, with a 

 leafy shroud, the lost and wandering " babes in the 

 wood,"* is held in universal respect in every part of 

 Europe, where he is known by endearing names, and so 

 familiar in winter that he sometimes taps at the window, 

 or enters the house in search of crumbs, and, like the 

 domestic fowls, claims his welcome pittance at the 

 farmer's door. 



The nest of this species is often on the horizontal 

 branch of an apple tree, or in a bush or tree in the 

 woods, and so large, as to be scarcely ever wholly con- 

 cealed. The materials, chiefly leaves, old grass, and some- 

 times whitish moss [Bceomyces Sp.), are cemented to- 

 gether inside by a plastering of bog-mud, often filled 

 with fibrous roots, somewhat after the manner of the 

 Thrush, but the interior is lined with short, dry, rotten 



* A well known legend to this effect. 



