308 FEBRUARY 



when he has asserted himself in what he considers 

 an adequate manner, the robin of the elm tree eats 

 his breakfast and retires to his hiding place in the 

 hedge, and the robins of the holly tree and of the 

 apple tree are allowed to satisfy their natural 

 craving for food. This routine is invariable, and 

 the consequence is that the elm-tree bird has been 

 fat and well-liking throughout the winter, while his 

 poorer relatives have a seedy appearance, due 

 partly to only half-appeased hunger, and partly to 

 some loss of natural dignity arising through 

 persecution. For the chief characteristic of the 

 robin is personal pride and vainglory. He will 

 not associate with robins in a walk of life different 

 from his own. He loves the neighbourhood of 

 human beings, whom, doubtless, he considers fit 

 associates for his important little self, and I have 

 known a robin who never failed to fly out from the 

 hedge and welcome me whenever I came in from 

 my daily walk. But other robins he dislikes and 

 distrusts in the same way that an Englishman 

 abroad dislikes and distrusts all Englishmen he 

 meets, while holding out the hand of fellowship 

 to persons of a nationality other than his own. 

 " I hate to be mixed up with that holly- tree fellow," 

 says the elm-tree robin as plainly as possible to his 

 human friends ; and the holly-tree fellow knows 

 it well, and takes a small satisfaction by despising 

 the apple-tree fellow who lives in the kitchen 

 garden, and is in consequence a mere rustic, and 

 of no account whatever in the more aristocratic 

 circles of the robin world. 



Before the smaller birds have finished their meal 



