THE REDBREAST. 117 



favourites, whether furred or feathered ; and to the store 

 of his enjoyments they made a material contribution. But, 

 like all favourites, they exercised a corresponding- des- 

 potism. Not only had he to carry with him the coati 

 mondi in his migrations from the country to the town, 

 but he had often to surrender his own convenience to the 

 whims of canine humourists or prima donnas sulking in 

 their cages; and so devoted was he to a glow-worm, which 

 he had fostered through many months, that he carried it 

 with him during a long tour in 1853, and was greatly 

 mortified when at last he lost it. He used to feed it at 

 breakfast-time by placing it in an egg-shell on the table, 

 and most likely the wrong shell had been put into the 

 box, and the poor lampyris left to waste its brightness on 

 the desert air of Skye. Of the robin above mentioned, 

 some traits have been preserved in Mr Syme's beautiful 

 volume on " British Song-Birds :" — 



"We know a gentleman who last summer (1822) 

 caught a young redbreast, one of a brood just flown, in 

 his garden. A short time after, the bird was lost, several 

 days elapsed and robin did not appear ; when the gentle- 

 man, walking in the garden with a friend, saw a bird of 

 this species, which he thought very like his, hopping 

 among four or five others, that seemed to be all of the 

 same age. He requested his friend not to move, and 

 returned to the house for a few crumbs, which he held in 



