152 TAME ROBINS. [PART II. 



in January, when he had migrated to Rome in 

 hopes of finding the warm weather he had vainly 

 sought at Pau, another, in which he said, "The 

 ice about the fountains, &c. is just beginning to 

 shew signs of thawing." During all the early part 

 of the winter the weather had been, in the south 

 of England, remarkably dry. 



There were about the same house a few years ago 

 a pair of Robins, who were more than usually tame, 

 and whose determination to identify themselves with 

 the family, and make themselves at home, was not 

 a little amusing. They used regularly to come 

 into the dining-room at breakfast time, and help 

 themselves to whatever they fancied, modestly con- 

 fining themselves, however, generally to the side- 

 table, where the tail of one was often to be seen 

 appearing above a pie-dish, the rest of him being 

 busily engaged inside, "pegging away" at a hard- 

 boiled egg, or something nice of the kind. When 

 the spring came on they commenced a regular 

 contest with the housemaids, of which the draw- 

 ing-rooms formed the scene of action ; the robins 

 insisting that they would build there, and Fanny 

 and Co. insisting that they should not. " Expelles 

 furcd, tamen usque recurrent'' As soon as a nest 

 was commenced in one place, in went Fanny's 



