EOBIN BOOSTS. 



' ' From every side they hurried in, 

 Rubbing their sleepy eyes." 



KEATS. 



OF all the nearly eight hundred species of 

 North American birds, the robin is without 

 question the one most generally known. Its 

 great commonness and wide distribution have 

 something to do with this fact, but can 

 hardly be said to account for it altogether. 

 The red-eyed vireo has almost as extensive 

 a range, and at least in New England is 

 possibly more numerous; but except among 

 ornithologists it remains a stranger, even to 

 country-bred people. The robin owes its 

 universal recognition partly to its size and 

 perfectly distinctive dress, partly to its early 

 arrival in the spring, but especially to the 

 nature of its nesting and feeding habits, 

 which bring it constantly under every one's 

 eye. 



It would seem impossible, at this late day, 



