BIRDS IN THE CALENDAR 
and some of the smaller warblers, are so 
easily confused with those of allied species 
that Lord Lilford's caution is by no means 
superfluous. Ordinarily speaking, the robin's 
egg is white, with red spots at one end, but 
I remember taking at Bexley, nearly thirty 
years ago, an immaculate one of coffee colour. 
As the robin is a favourite foster-parent 
with cuckoos, my first thought was that this 
might be an unusually small egg of the 
parasitic bird, which was very plentiful 
thereabouts. It so happened, however, that 
three days after I had abstracted the first 
and only egg I took from that nest, there was 
a second of the same type ; and, much as 
I would have liked this also for my collection, 
I left it in the nest so as to set all doubts at rest. 
My moderation was rewarded, for no one else 
found the nest, and in due course the coffee- 
coloured egg produced a robin like the rest. 
The robin is anything but a gregarious bird. 
Its fighting temper doubtless leads it to keep 
its own company, and we rarely see more 
than one singing on the same bush, or seeking 
for food on the same lawn. Yet, though it is 
with us all the year, it is known to perform 
142 
