' FINE FEATHERS' 157 



you could have seen my tame cock robin one day. 

 He was very shabby himself almost stripped 

 moulting, I think, and so was his wife. I had been 

 bewailing their condition for some time, and so 

 had they ; the cock looked piteously at the place 

 where his scarlet and white ought to have been, 

 and seemed quite humbled and low-spirited. He 

 was standing so on my verandah one day, having 

 bits of bacon thrown to him, when suddenly there 

 alighted on the window-sill a fine young robin 

 the handsomest I ever saw and in perfect 

 plumage. You should have seen my bird ! he went 

 off into the wildest ecstasies, flamed up with un- 

 mistakable admiration, and danced and sang and 

 erected his crest at her ; never was such adulation ! 

 But she was quite indifferent to the poor little 

 shabby fellow, and quickly disappeared, he after 

 her. 



Both my robins are about now constantly with 

 their two fast-growing and extremely hungry little 

 ones ; they never seem to bring up more than two 

 here. 



March 27, 1889. 



One of my tits, who has learnt to tap for me, 

 hangs on with his feet to the bottom of the window, 

 and tries to catch hold of the glass with his wings. 

 Such a scratching he makes ! 



