Cock Robin's Counterfeits 



as an enlivener of winter as he ought to do. 

 As a matter of fact, however, the real European 

 robin is a much greater traveller than is usually 

 supposed, for many of his species leave for the 

 south in the autumn, to be replaced by immi- 

 grants from further north. 



The Yankee favourite is a fine songster, 

 though his melody is, naturally, of quite a dif- 

 ferent type from our bird's, and more closely 

 resembles that of the blackbird. He is like 

 both that bird and the true robin in haunting 

 the vicinity of human habitations, where he is 

 often much annoyed by that very undesirable 

 introduction, the house-sparrow, which is even 

 impudent enough to filch from him the worms 

 he has obtained. 



Every one who loves birds and poetry must 

 know Longfellow's lines in " The Birds of 

 Killingworth," 



"The robin and the bluebird, piping loud, 

 Filled all the blossoming orchards with their glee," 



and the bluebird therein mentioned is another 



member of the thrush tribe, but one far more 



nearly related to the genuine robin than the 



larger species I have been discussing. That 



both the European robin and the American 



bluebird are really only small thrushes is proved 



by the fact that in their first or nestling plumage 



they are spotted like the young of the larger 



103 



