APRIL. 



91 



lines it with fine fibrous roots and horse-hair ; 

 and lays five eggs of a palish purple, orna- 

 mented with deep purple flourishes of a hiero- 

 glyphic-like appearance. The robin too builds 

 in the bank, and his nest may be immediately 

 known by the brown withered leaves col- 

 lected at its door, so to speak, as if he always 

 bore them in his escutcheon, in memory of his 

 meritorious behaviour to "the Babes in the 

 Wood." The fame of that good deed is his 

 perpetual defence. None but the most hard- 

 ened and graceless lads will rob a wren or a 

 robin, for, says their legend, 



Robinets gnd Jenny Wrens, 



Are God Almighty's Cocks and Hens ; 



And it is likewise a tradition amongst them 

 that if you rob either of these the cows will 

 give bloody milk. On the banks too, or in the 

 outskirts of a thicket, or where some thorns 

 have been laid and the tall grass has grown up 

 amongst them, the little willow-wren builds 

 an oval nest after the fashion of the common 

 wren and the feather- poke, and lays a great 

 number of eggs in a mass of warm feathers. 

 The eggs of all these birds are much alike in 

 colour ; of a pale delicate bloom with red 



