The robin, who, by the way, is not a robin, but 
a thrush, belongs to the Turdidae family, a small, 
refined and highly distinguished family. His 
name, robin, was given him by the Puritan 
Fathers because of a fancied resemblance to the 
so-called robin redbreast of England. Nor is 
this famous robin redbreast of English story a 
robin. He is a stone-chat, of an historic, old- 
world family. Owing to his red breast, and be- 
cause Robert and Robin were once favorite and 
famous names, he was called robin — robin red- 
breast. 
Who has not heard the story of robin red- 
breast and “ The Children in the Woods,” or 
read that ancient Scottish pastoral of “ Robin,” 
and of “ Robin Goodfellow,” and of ‘ Robin 
Hood,” and “Auld Robin Gray” and “ Robin 
Adair”? 
In our bluebird we have a near relative of this 
widely known robin redbreast. They inherit 
alike from blueblooded ancestry, of which blue- 
bird and one other, wheat-ear, are the sole repre- 
sentatives in this country. 
And our bluebird here at home is often called 
the “blue robin.” There is no excuse for this 
confusion of names. The robin and the blue- 
bird are in looks and habits entirely unlike. To 
our robin unhesitatingly we accord the military 
rank his bearing and deportment demand. He 
stands tall and erect. He does not walk, he 
marches on to our lawn, and there drills his 
imaginary forces. His calls are clarion calls of 
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