THE ROBIN 97 



and usually taken at a very moderate height. The 

 usual call-note of the Robin is both clear and 

 sharp, and generally uttered several times in quick 

 succession accompanied by a bobbing motion. The 

 weeping note, almost peculiar to the nesting season, 

 is particularly plaintive, and in some districts is said 

 by the country folk to be an ill omen. A " weep- 

 ing" Robin in Devonshire is said to foretell death. 



The singularly sweet and plaintive song of the 

 Robin is practically unique so far as British birds 

 are concerned. There is no other song with which 

 it can be compared ; it has a distinct character 

 peculiarly its own. Of all our native bird music it 

 is perhaps the saddest ; and yet withal it is a cheer- 

 ful song, a melody of hope poured forth amidst the 

 ruined woods and dripping trees touched with the 

 decay of autumn, or from out the snow-decked 

 branches when gaunt winter reigns supreme. In its 

 way the Robin's melody is national music ; and in 

 almost every part of the world to which England has 

 sent her sons as colonists, some bird more or less 

 like a Robin in appearance, has been chosen as the 

 deputy of the red-breasted bird which the emigrant 

 ever associates with " Home." The song of the 

 Robin is not a very lengthened one, but is warbled 

 time after time with pleasing persistency. Then 

 again, with the exception of the moulting season in 

 July and August, it is a perennial song, one that is 

 heard summer and winter alike, and comes out in 



