174 HOMING WITH THE BIRDS 



toward the right side so that the snow white down 

 makes a perfect background to show the cutting 

 of the upper and lower mandible, eye, ear, ex- 

 tremely large and prominent nostril, tough, leath- 

 ery appearance of the cheeks, the rounded point 

 of the lower mandible, the sharp overlapping hook 

 of the upper; while his mouth is open to such an 

 extent that the length, breadth, and peculiarly 

 humanlike shape of the tongue are fully repro- 

 duced. I can not conceive how it would be pos- 

 sible to crowd more natural history into the like- 

 ness of one bird. 



Because the robins were my father's favourite 

 birds, and because they have such particularly 

 charming dispositions and are so numerous and 

 friendly, through all of my work I have been in- 

 trigued into making numbers of pictures of them. 

 This was especially true in the Cabin, south, be- 

 cause it was surrounded by fruit trees and flowering 

 shrubs and covered with vines of half a dozen 

 different kinds. One robin picture I regard as 

 particularly rare, because the exposure was made 

 from my library table through heavy plate glass on 

 the twenty-seventh of February. Counting on my 

 protection and care, for several years this robin 

 had been around the Cabin from one to two weeks 

 earlier than any other bird of his kind could 

 be seen or heard anywhere in the country. This 

 year he outdid himself by appearing in February. 

 The day the picture was taken the snow was six 



