98 BIRD NOTES 



look now. The cock has lost the courage that 

 made it attack other birds, but it now and then, 

 when the men are away, sits in its old place on 

 the verandah. It comes at my call, even from 

 the trees sometimes, and seems glad of its bacon, 

 though it will not be drawn aside by it from that 

 continual listening, listening for the little dull and 

 distant chirp, or cheep, of the young birds. That 

 sound is called ' weeping ' here in Devonshire, I 

 find ; in the Bible it was ' peeping ' in the account 

 of Hezekiah's illness. The Kevisers have, I see, 

 altered it to 'chirping.' I should call it 'cheep- 

 ing.' Probably when we pronounced the i in the 

 Continental manner, peep was spelt ' pipe.' 



June 20, 1885. 



I thought I had lost my robin. Only one has 

 come of late, I think, and this one did not seem 

 to like the new and much lighter colour of the 

 verandah, probably thinking it was now too much 

 exposed. I breakfast downstairs, too, in the 

 dining-room now. On the sill of that window, 

 however, he appeared a few days ago, just as I 

 was thinking I had lost him. I was at breakfast, 

 and called him and threw some crumbs on the 

 carpet, and he came in and took some, but 

 seemed afraid to stay. He has come at my call 

 twice lately. To-day, when I went to the window 



