CHAPTEK XXIV 



ANIMAL LIFE ABOUT MR. DUNFORD's FARM, WITH 

 AN ACCOUNT OF " MAJOR " SHADLEY, AND TITLES 

 IN THE UNITED STATES 



ONE afternoon when I returned from a ramble I found 

 Mr. Dunford chastising one of his younger sons, a boy of 

 fourteen. The young rascal, it seems, had been out with 

 a gun without permission, and had not only blazed away 

 a pound of powder (a very valuable article in the back- 

 woods), but had shot thirteen robins, a most heinous offence, 

 and one which I was surprised to find an American boy 

 committing ; for the American robin is as much revered 

 in this part of America as the English robin in the Old 

 Country. About Boston, however, Chicago, and many 

 parts of New York State, I have seen boys and men shoot- 

 ing them, as Cockney sportsmen used to do the sparrows 

 in my own country. Few farmers will permit them to be 

 destroyed on their farms, as they say that this bird is a 

 most useful devourer of noxious insects. My experience 

 is that, like a thrush, which its habits exactly resemble, 

 it is omnivorous, with a preference for fruit, of which it is 

 passionately fond, in this matter emulating the fieldfare 

 and common song-thrush of Europe, which all observers 

 must have noticed clustering in hawthorn bushes, moun- 

 tain-ash, and apple or pear trees in which, by chance, a 

 few fruit have been left. 



Robin is a misnomer ; the bird so called is really a 

 thrush, Turdus migratorius of the Americans, Turdus 

 canadensis of Europeans. But I have this to say, with 

 all due deference to the professional naturalists, that 

 superficially, at least, and size apart, the English robin is 



280 



