78 STORIES ABOUT BIRDS. 



If you are digging in your garden, he drops down silently close beside 

 you, so that you can almost touch him ; but if you look at him, he hops on 

 to the railing, or to some safe place. The next moment he is down again, 

 looking for worms. 



Though sociable with us, he is very quarrelsome with his neighbours, and 

 has a great dislike to the sparrow, and will peck at and fight fiercely with 

 him. And he has many a fray with his brother robins. Two of them were once 

 seen contending with such violence, that they rolled together on the garden 

 walk. Indeed, one would have killed the other if they had not been parted. 



Nor is the robin on such friendly terms with man at all seasons. It is 

 hunger that makes him so tame as to venture almost within our doors. 



Whether he knows it or not, he is in most cases perfectly safe. Ever 

 since the time of the " babes in the wood," no one would think of hurting 

 a robin. 



The nest of the robin is placed under a hedge or bush, and is rarely found 

 in a tree. It is large, and ratlier loosely made of grass and moss and decayed 

 leaves. And five eggs are laid in it, of a reddish white, faintly marked 

 with purple. 



Sometimes the birds choose a very odd place for the nest, and are very 

 resolved to carry their point. 



A pair of robins once began to build in a tall myrtle plant that stood in 

 the hall of a gentleman's house. The nest was objected to for many reasons, 

 and pulled down. The birds then began to build in a still more curious 

 place. They chose the cornice in the drawing-room, and began to carry 

 moss and leaves there. Of course, such a proceeding was stopped at once, 

 and the nest removed. 



The robins, nothing daunted, now began to build a third time, in a new 

 shoe that was placed on a shelf in the dressing-room. They were allowed to 

 go on with the work until the nest was finished. Then, as the shoe was 

 wanted to be worn with its fellow, the nest was taken carefully out, and placed 

 in an old shoe instead. The robins did not seem to mind the change in the 

 least. They filled up the under part of the shoe with oak leaves, and very 

 soon the eggs were laid and hatched. The windows of the room were kept 

 open a little, so that the parent birds could go backwards and forwards as 

 much as they chose. Nothing could exceed their tameness. They made 

 themselves perfectly at home ; and when the gentleman who used the dressing- 



