74 About the Feathered Folk. 



they can live and they can sing in 

 Russia, in Sweden, even in Siberia, 

 but they will not enter Scotland, 

 Ireland, or Wales. And the "garden 

 of England," as the dwellers in 

 Devon proudly term their county, 

 never hears their song; and Corn- 

 wall, where mild airs and flowering 

 shrubs might be thought of as 

 entirely suited to their taste, is 

 never visited. 



And exactly why this is no 

 naturalist can say. 



Sir John Sinclair, the well- 

 known northern agriculturist, tried 

 many years ago to cheat them into 

 coming to Scotland. He purchased 

 as many eggs as he could procure, 

 giving a large price for each one, 

 and with infinite care he got them 

 placed safely in robins' nests in 

 his own county of Caithness. In 

 due time they were hatched; and 

 famously the redbreasts managed 



