io Oxford: Autumn and Winter. 



the bushes literally alive with them in October 

 and November, in a state of extreme liveliness 

 and pugnacity. This is the great season of their 

 battles. Most country-people know of the war- 

 fare between the old and young Robins, and will 

 generally tell you that the young ones kill their 

 parents. The truth seems to be that after their 

 autumnal moult, in the confidence of renewed 

 strength, the old ones attack their offspring, and 

 succeed in forcing them to seek new homes. 

 This combativeness is of course accompanied by- 

 fresh vigour of song. Birds will sing, as I am 

 pretty well convinced, under any kind of pleasant 

 or exciting emotion such as love, abundance of 

 food, warmth, or anger ; and the outbreak of the 

 Robin's song in autumn is to be ascribed, in part 

 at least, to the last of these. Other reasons may 

 be found, such as restored health after the moult, 

 or the arrival in a warmer climate after immi- 

 gration, or possibly even the delusion, already 

 noticed, which not uncommonly possesses them 

 in a warm autumn, that it is their duty to set 

 about pairing and nest-building already. But all 

 these would affect other species also, and the 



