166 A GARDEN OF PLEASURE 



while the sun shines sidelong on his 

 spotted breast; or a robin shows his red 

 waistcoat for a moment. He is not, I fear, 

 my robin that has hitherto been so con- 

 stant to the window for twelve months 

 past he has hardly missed a day. Bold 

 and familiar in the winter, silent and 

 hurried at nesting time not a feather in 

 his tail, and very shy, when moulting. 

 Gay and insouciant in his new suit, looking 

 as big again, and trilling half a bar at a 

 time short and full, but ( always regular to 

 his meals ' at the saucer of sopped biscuit. 

 Dear little tame robin ! I shall grieve if 

 he is dead ; but I thinkfhe will come back 

 in the winter, when birds are hungry. 

 They say that robins go to the seaside in 

 October ; and another saying would have 

 the young birds kill the old ones at this 

 season. Even this is better than the way 

 my friends the swallows behave. Up to 

 the time when they all left England 

 about the I3th they seem to have been 

 still occupied with late broods of young. 

 It was indeed without my consent that 

 they thus foolishly employed themselves 



