220 IN NATURE'S WAYS 



leaf, his olive-green back is only a dark shadow among 

 the dark foliage. 



Every robin has his favourite haunt. He may stay 

 in a garden all the year round except when he dis- 

 appears for a while after nesting. We have known a 

 young robin to make himself at home through life near 

 a pile of faggots, where, in a cottage garden, he came 

 into the world ; his parents and brethren had retired 

 elsewhere. But in the autumn cock robin is likely to 

 drive his young hopefuls from his own favourite 

 garden haunt, and there may be desperate battles, 

 sometimes to the death. What becomes of the young 

 robins after they have been exiled is another of the 

 robin mysteries. 



Robin is a bird who likes to keep himself to himself : 

 solitary by nature, jealous, pugnacious, and a trifle 

 melancholy too, if we may judge by the plaintive notes 

 of his autumn song. The wren is a home-keeping bird 

 too, haunting a favourite coppice, hedge, or stone 

 wall ; but he is not one like the robin to allow himself 

 to become a pensioner, a feeder on the crumbs of 

 charity ; he can look after himself in all weathers. 

 So easy is it to tame a robin by feeding him on his 

 favourite mealworms that he will soon follow a human 

 friend about like a spaniel, hopping after him indoors 

 to perch on his shoulder, and take food from his hand. 



The great mystery about the wren is the puzzle of 

 the wren's empty nests. Through spring and summer 

 we are always finding new, beautifully woven, but 

 empty nests. Cocks' nests, country people call them ; 

 and it may well be that the cock bird does indeed 

 sometimes build a nest for himself. That wrens 

 quickly desert their nests if interfered with partly 

 accounts for the many forsaken homes. Sometimes 

 they will return to a nest after long absence. One 



