REDBREAST. I3 



Familiar warbler, wherefore art thou come 

 To sing to thee when all besides are dumb, 

 Pray let your little children drop a crumb. 



Montgomery. 



This frank confidence in man has endeared him to children, 

 and gained for him and for the Wren, the very first place in popular 

 regard. According to the old ballad, it was the Robin that took 

 pity on the forlorn, forsaken Babes in the Wood. 



No burial this pretty pair, 



Of any man receives. 

 The Robin Redbreast piously 



Did cover them with leaves. 



His very name of Robin, if not taken from some old Fable, 

 was probably given to him as a sort of pet name. 



His bold determined spirit will not brook confinement, and 

 he rebels and struggles, even unto death, against the restraint of a 

 cage. In the autumn, the Robin becomes fierce and pugnacious to 

 his own kindred, and every lawn and thicket becomes a battlefield. 

 The unrelenting fury with which they fight, is well illustrated by an 

 incident, given by Mr. Evans, as occurring at Burton Court in 

 1850 : — " Two Robins engaged in a deadly conflict, when at length 

 one killed the other ; throughout the day, the little cruel victor 

 returned, time after time, to wreak his unslaked enmity on the body 

 of his adversary, pecking at it, and apparently glorying in his act of 

 blood " (p. 221). It is believed that the old birds frequently drive 

 the young ones to swell the stream of emigrants, then setting steadily 

 towards warmer climates. It has also been said that their duration 

 of life is but three years, from the second year birds killing the 

 older ones. 



The evening song of a Redbreast from the top of a small tree, 

 is thought to indicate fine weather on the morrow. Mr. Evans 

 says of its sweet plaintive notes — 



And though the frost be keen, 



And though the night be long, 

 I know that spring will come again, 



And sing my morning song. 



Evans — Songs of the Birds. 



