ROBIN REDBREAST. 269 



abodes of man in winter, and when there is a fall of snow or 

 a severe frost, there is scarcely a cottage or a house in the 

 country, at the doors of which they fail to make their appear- 

 ance. Sometimes they even tap at the windows with their 

 bills, as if to solicit admission ; and when it is given to them, 

 they will hop up and down the floor, and pick up the crumbs. 

 In every age their familiarity has engaged the attention, and 

 secured to them the protection of mankind. In my parish 

 they are held as sacred by the bird-searching youths as the 

 vultures are in the neighbourhood of Grand Cairo, where no 

 one is permitted to destroy them. For very few even of the 

 most daring and hard-hearted amongst them will venture to de- 

 stroy either them or their eggs. So deeply have their minds 

 been impressed by the recital of the well-known and affecting 

 history of the babes of the wood, who, after they had been 

 left to perish with hunger, were covered with leaves by these 

 little creatures. 



" During the months of autumn and amidst the desolations of 

 winter, when almost all the songsters of the woods are silent, 

 we listen to their pleasing notes with delight. I have known 

 several curious facts relative to their tameness, of which I shall 

 relate only one at present. In the summer of 1835 a male 

 robin in my garden became so tame that he picked worms 

 from the hand of the gardener, and in the middle of the day, 

 when the latter took his dinner, he constantly attended for 

 the purpose of obtaining a portion of it. Upon the knee 

 of my wnfe I have repeatedly seen him alight, and take 

 bread out of her hand as familiarly as if he had been 

 tamed from the nest. To me he likewise became very much 

 attached. He continued so during the autumn. One cold 

 morning in the beginning of winter, as I was standing at the 

 door of my house, having heard my voice he immediately flew 

 to me, and, seeming to claim my protection, followed me into 

 the parlour, where he was quite at ease. I caught him 

 and put him into my garret, in which, during the winter, he 

 sang most delightfully. Being sorry to see him alone, I got 

 for him a helpmate to cheer him in his confinement. About 

 the middle of April I set them at liberty, and, to my surprise, 

 a few days after I discovered a very neat nest which they had 



