UNUSUAL EXPERIENCES AFIELD 91 



seat that it was perfectly protected from sun and 

 rain. ^ 



A man in Richmond, Indiana, once sent me a 

 photograph of a brooding robin. He wrote that 

 the bird had been carried into the Union Depot 

 of that city on the running gear of a freight 

 car, having ridden on her nest, which the train 

 crew said had been built in freight yards in New 

 York City. The bird was the pet of the men 

 about the yards, and much food from the dinner 

 pails of the workmen was left near the nest for 

 her convenience. The picture was certainly that 

 of a live, brooding robin on the gear of a freight 

 car, while the story seemed to be supported by 

 ample and reliable proof, although it was in no 

 way a personal experience of mine. 



Heroic as the Richmond robin may have been, 

 I have one robin experience which proves the 

 bird of even greater devotion to her nest and 

 young than that previously related. This robin 

 arrived early and built in an apple tree outside 

 the music-room window of the Cabin, south. 

 The tree had been struggling with a bad case of 

 scale for several years and had succumbed the 

 past wintei*. The bird built in all confidence 

 nearly fifteen feet from the ground at the branching 

 of two large limbs, but not one leaf opened to 

 shelter her from alternate driving spring rains and 

 hot sunshine, as she surely expected. One day 

 she baked in the sun; the following, she chilled 



