SECOND WEEK IN MAY 



sure my robin is too clever to drop her prey when once 

 secured. 



But the father bird has to be reckoned with, and even the 

 mother bird in autumn will drive her youngsters out of the 

 garden, if possible, to ensure their finding a domain of their 

 own before the winter. Her mate is apt to appear in his 

 wrath when the young robins are fully fledged having left 

 the nest for a week and scatter them all, including the 

 mother, with beak and claws. He does not approve of any 

 spoiling of the children, and insists upon their spreading 

 themselves separately over the country, in order that they 

 may learn at once to earn their own maintenance ; and 

 probably he is right, for every robin has its own 100 yards 

 or so of garden or wood in winter-time, and woe betide any 

 newcomer which ventures on another's ground ! This is a 

 doubly wise provision of Nature to ensure food for each robin, 

 and also the destruction of insects all over the land. Those 

 robins which cannot find an unoccupied kingdom by Novem- 

 ber are said to be chased by the rest to the sea, and there to 

 take flight for another country. Poor little things ! few of 

 them ever arrive there, probably, unless the wind happens to 

 favour their tender wings in such a flight. Last autumn 

 my younger pet, Ruby, endured much buffeting from her 

 parents, but absolutely refused to leave the garden, where 

 such a convenient store of biscuits (which she greatly prefers 

 to bread) was always available ; at last she turned upon 

 them, but this did not take place until she was fully arrayed 

 in a bright red waistcoat, for the nestlings are all in sober 

 brown when they first appear. 



