AMERICAN ROBIN 387 



stream I had seen for some time crossed the road. Here, 

 also, numerous robins came to cool and wash them- 

 selves and to drink. They stood in the water up to their 

 bellies, from time to time wetting their wings and tails 

 and also ducking their heads and sprinkling the water 

 over themselves ; then they sat on a fence near by to dry. 

 Then a goldfinch came and did the same, accompanied 

 by the less brilliant female. These birds evidently en- 

 joyed their bath greatly, and it seemed indispensable 

 to them. 



April 1, 1852. I hear a robin singing in the woods 

 south of Hosmer's, just before sunset. It is a sound as- 

 sociated with New England village life. It brings to 

 my thoughts summer evenings when the children are 

 playing in the yards before the doors and their parents 

 conversing at the open windows. It foretells all this 

 now, before those summer hours are come. 



April 11, 1852. The song of a robin on an oak in 

 Hubbard's Grove sounds far ofiF. So I have heard a 

 robin within three feet in a cage in a dark barroom (how 

 unstained by all the filth of that place ?) with a kind 

 of ventriloquism so singing that his song sounded far 

 off on the elms. It was more 'pathetic still for this. 

 The robins are singing now on all hands while the sun 

 is setting. At what an expense any valuable work is per- 

 formed ! At the expense of a life ! If you do one thing 

 well, what else are you good for in the meanwhile ? 



April 13, 1852. The robin is the only bird as yet 

 that makes a business of singing, steadily singing, — 

 sings continuously out of pure joy and melody of soul, 

 carols. The jingle of the song sparrow, simple and 



