ROBIN 



succumbed. The bird builded in all confidence, nearly fifteen 

 feet from the ground, at the branching of two large limbs. Not 

 one leaf opened to shelter her. One of those early spring days 

 she baked in the sun, the following she chilled in a skift of snow; 

 how she breasted one rain always has been a marvel to me. 



The tree stood outside a French window and from the slope 

 of the ground, the nest came nearly level with the face of a person 

 standing inside the window. The rainfall began on Monday 

 morning; from then until ten o'clock Thursday there was not 

 one daylight hour during which it did not rain, from a sprinkle 

 heavy enough to detain the bird to keep her nest and eggs dry, 

 to a deluge that forced her to stick her beak straight up and gasp 

 for breath. During all that time not one of us saw that bird 

 make a movement to leave her nest nor did the male bird come 

 once to feed her or relieve her long siege of brooding; from Wed- 

 nesday morning on some of us were on watch almost constantly. 



I thought that the mud plastering of the nest would dissolve, 

 so that it would wash away from under her. I thought her eggs 

 would be chilled so that her young would be lost; while in the 

 heaviest downpour I truly thought she would drown on her nest or 

 perish from hunger. 



We seriously discussed trying to wire an old umbrella over 

 her or to fasten a box above the nest; but we feared that any 

 shelter we could arrange before her eggs had quickened to bind 

 her to the nest, would drive her from it; so we watched, marvelled 

 and lamented, but did nothing. At ten o'clock Thursday the 

 rain stopped, the clouds scattered, then the sun shone. Riley 

 wrote of a bumblebee so laden with sweets that it "staggered "as 

 it flew. From long continuance in the same position during all 

 those hours of cold drenching, and hunger, our Robin staggered 

 when she finally arose from her nest, shook her wet wings, uttered 

 the Robin tribal call, and attempted flight. I was watching, so I 



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