BIEDS OF THE GARDEN AXD OECHAED. 



III. 



THE EOBIN. 



Our American birds have not been celebrated in classic 

 song. They are hardly well known even to our own peo- 

 ple, and have not in general been exalted by praise above 

 their real merits. We read, both in prose and verse, of the 

 European Lark, the Linnet, and the Nightingale, and the 

 English Eobin Eedbreast has been immortalized in song. 

 But the American Eobin is a bird of very different habits. 

 Not much has been written about him as a songster, and 

 he enjoys but little celebrity. He has never been puffed 

 and overpraised, and though universally admired, the many 

 who admire him are fearful all the while lest they are 

 mistaken in their judgment and waste their admiration 

 upon .an object that is unwortliy of it, — one whose true 

 merits fall short of their own estimate. It is the same 

 want of self-reliance affecting the generality of minds 

 which often causes every man publicly to praise what 

 each one privately condemns, thus creating a spurious 

 public opinion. 



I shall not ask pardon of those critics who are always 

 canting about musical " power," and who would probably 

 deny this gift to the Eobin, because he cannot gobble hke 

 a turkey or squall like a cat, and because with his charm- 

 ing strains he does not mingle all sorts of discords and 

 incongruous sounds, for assigning the Eobin a very 

 high rank as a singing-bird. Let them say, in the cant 

 of modern criticism, that his performances cannot be 



