84 BOBBY IN SPRING. 



But we are beginning where we ought to leave off. Our 

 little friend has a world of cares to go through, and a 

 busy active life to lead, for several months before he is 

 driven from his woodland haunts to seek the company of 

 man, 



By chill "blasts sweeping through the forests bare, 

 And gathering mists, and clouds that hide the sun, 

 And dull and dreary prospects everywhere, 

 Telling the reign of winter hath begun. 



Let us first, then, look at Bobby in his vernal aspect. 

 Pert and busy and cheerful is he at all times, but never 

 so much so as in early spring, when i love swells his breast 

 and animates his strain,' and a forecast of coming family 

 cares and duties adds to his sense of importance, which is 

 always sufficiently great. Gloomy it is, and cold and bleak, 

 in the middle, it may be, of the reign of stormy March, 

 when Eobinet, having found a mate, begins with her the 

 task of constructing a habitation : hither and thither the 

 little birds flit in search of materials, the cock ever and 

 anon pausing upon some yet-naked spray to warble his 

 love-strain ; sweet it is and mellow, although not loud 

 and varied as that of many other feathered songsters. 

 Now he flies to the ground, hops a little way, then stands 

 with his head on one side, then starts forward and picks up 

 a piece of moss, or a feather, or something suitable 

 for the nest he and his partner are intent on making ; for 

 her ear his song is intended, as is the lively chirp of 

 encouragement which he ever and anon emits. Soon the 

 nest is formed in the hollow of a bank, under a hedge or 

 bush, or a small tuft of herbage. It is rather loosely made, 

 of moss and decayed leaves, and blades of grass at the 

 bottom ; the middle layer is of finer grasses, leaves, and 

 moss ; and the lining is of hair and wool, a quarter of an 

 inch or so thick. In this are deposited five or six reddish 

 white eggs, freckled with light purplish red very sparsely at 

 the small, but thickly at the larger end ; they are five or six 

 in number, and average about three-quarters of an inch in 

 length. 



An English naturalist of the sixteenth century, named 



