STOEIES ABOUT BIRDS. 21 



Ms yard, packed as it was, till it should be 

 convenient to liim to send it off. In the mean 

 time, a pair of robins built their nest among 

 the straw in the wagon, and had hatched their 

 young before it was sent away. One of the 

 old birds, instead of being frightened away by 

 the motion of the wagon, only left its nest 

 occasionally, for the purpose of flying to the 

 nearest hedge for food for its young ; and thus, 

 alternately affording warmth and nourishment 

 to them, it arrived at Worthing. The affection 

 of this bird having been observed by the 

 wagoner, he took care, in unloading, not to 

 disturb the robin's nest ; so that the robin and 

 its young returned in safety to Walton Heath, 

 the place whence they were taken. The dis- 

 tance the wagon went, in going and returning, 

 could not have been less than one hundred 

 miles." 



A correspondent of mine, whose veracity I 

 cannot doubt, states that he was once a witness 

 of a scene, which convinced him that snakes 

 possess the power of charming birds. He says, 

 " When I was a boy, I was passing through a 

 forest, and, hearing a bird making a great ado, 

 I stopped to investigate the matter. Upon the 

 top of a small white-oak shrub, I saw a robin 

 flying about hither and thither, keeping her 



