18 BRITISH BIRDS 



In joyless fields and thorny thickets leaves 



His shivering mates, and pays to trusted man 



His annual visit. Half-afraid, he first 



Against the window beats; then, brisk, alights 



On the warm hearth; then, hopping o'er the floor, 



Eyes all the smiling family askance, 



And pecks, and starts, and wonders where he is; 



Till, more familiar grown, the table-crumbs 



Attract his slender feet. so 



Let me call attention to those touches which, though 

 simply expressed, are creative of the scene. There is 

 first the tiny visitor's timid announcement of his 

 presence at the window of the manse parlour, his 

 ruddy breast showing dimly through the frosted pane ; 

 followed by some assurance in the brisk entrance, 

 when the window opens to let him in ; then the full 

 watchful eye, glancing askance at the amused family 

 seated round the breakfast table ; then the atmosphere 

 of wonder which environs the little creature as it*o 

 looks nervously about (pecking and starting) in its 

 new and comfortable quarters ; and, finally, the climax 

 of a familiarity which at last directs the bird's way to 

 the table-crumbs ( as the poet finely puts it, 'the 

 table-crumbs attract his slender feet '). The realism of 

 the scene depends very much on the words ' askance ' 

 and ' slender '. 



The Besides the robin, Thomson particularly refers to 



^ale tm ' s * x th er British song-birds, all well known to most 

 of us, the lark, the thrush, the nightingale, the bull- so 

 finch, the blackbird, and the linnet. Of these the 

 nightingale is his first favourite. He became ac- 

 quainted with it near London; he could never have 

 seen or heard it in Scotland. To him its song was 

 The mazy-running soul of melody. 



