Cock Robin's Counterfeits 



seldom kept in captivity in his own country, 

 like the true robin in England, although I am 

 not aware that any prejudice exists against his 

 incarceration there. The other true robins in 

 India are not so widely distributed or con- 

 spicuous, and so call for no special remark ; but 

 the Himalayas hold a bird which bears the name 

 of robin, and is better known to bird-keepers at 

 home than any other of those I have mentioned, 

 though not, properly speaking, a near relative of 

 the real robin at all. This is the very sweet 

 little bird known as the Pekin robin — though, 

 albeit his range extends to China, it does not 

 reach Pekin — or, more scientifically, as the red- 

 billed or yellow-bellied liothrix. I do not know 

 of any small bird more attractive than this pretty 

 creature, with his coral-red bill, yellow throat, 

 shading into orange on the breast, black mous- 

 taches, and steel-glossed forked tail. Nor are 

 these his only points of beauty, for his quill 

 feathers are most beautifully bordered with 

 orange, producing an effect quite unique among 

 birds, and his whole plumage is most exquisitely 

 sleek and smooth, while his large black eye 

 appropriately sets off the whole, and in its mild 

 expression does not belie his disposition. For 

 liothrix really belongs to the good-natured and 

 sociable group of babblers, and, in spite of his 



very robin-like appearance, has nothing of the 



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