COCK ROBIN AND JENNY WREN. 211 



On the whole, therefore, we incline to the opinion that 



" The sound of music sweet 

 From birds among the bowers," 



which greets us in the young prime of the year is called forth, 

 not so much by love, as by a general and all-pervading gladness 

 and gaiety of heart. 



But the Robin and the Wren, those old traditional friends of 

 our childhood, are not to be passed by with the bare mention 

 of their names, familiar though they are, and pretty well known 

 bj everybody. Naturalists may say what they please, but 

 Cock Robin and Jenny Wren are man and wife all the world 

 over, married and made one ages ago, and with a bond so sacred 

 and indissoluble that Sir Cresswell Cresswell, would find that it 

 quite overtopped his capacity to cut it asunder. Hath it not oft 

 been said or sung that 



" The Robin and the Wren 

 Are God's Cock and Hen ;" 



and in awe of the terrible malediction that guards their domicile 

 from violence, does not the truant schoolboy keep his hands off 

 from the nests of both the one and the other ? 



Izaak Walton says that " honest Robin loves mankind, both 

 alive and dead," and if the veracious history of the Babes in the 

 Wood will suffice to verify the latter part of the assertion, we 

 shall be at no loss to find proof of the former. But strangely 

 enough White of Selborne who almost invariably writes in a 

 genial and kindly tone, seems to have a positive antipathy to the 

 Robin, and speaks of it most disparagingly. He notices it but 

 once, and then very curtly ; and concludes what he has to say 

 with the ungracious remark that, " notwithstanding the prejudices 

 in their favour, they do much mischief in gardens to the summer 

 fruits." " Pert and spruce Master Robin," as Graham calls him, 

 was evidently no favourite with the recluse of Selborne ; and it 

 must be confessed that he exhibits at times some very unamiable 

 qualities. His pugnacious and quarrelsome disposition is well 

 known, and we have sometimes seen one of the little fellows 

 i'earlessly attack a crowd of Sparrows that have come to share his 

 daily allowance of crumbs, and fairly drive them off. It is not 

 always, however, that he succeeds in these onslaughts, for occa- 



