BIRDS OF THE WAVE AND WOODLAND 215 



the sun ought to be awakened ; the rest only think they 

 know. 



To tell the truth, if Phoebus were to attend to every 

 bird that chooses to call him, he might just as well breakfast 

 overnight ; lie down on the sofa with his hat and boots on, 

 or not go to sleep at all. Moreover, the skylark has the 

 merit of punctuality and is regular. He is always up and 

 singing by the time there is light enough to see him by. 

 The sun can rely upon him, which is more than can be said 

 for the robin, who, though I do not wish to say anything 

 about him that might injure his character, sings in the 

 mornings decidedly tipsily, as if he had been out all night at 

 a party and were just coming home '' with the milk." 



But no treason of the robin ! More than any other bird it 

 has endeared itself to our race, and our earliest literature 

 bears witness to the national affection for " the charitable 

 ruddock." Somehow or another, the pretty fancy has 

 attached itself to the bird, that it "covers the bodies of 

 unburied men," and long before Shakespeare utilised it to 

 beautify a passage it had passed into the proverbs of the 

 country. But even those who do not remember the charm- 

 ing legend with which the story of " The Babes in the 

 Wood" familiarises every English nursery, love the robin 

 for its beautiful confidence in man and woman, and for its 

 brave-hearted song. While the trees are still bare in spring, 

 and before the thrushes and blackbirds have begun to try 



