CHAPTER IX 



A DISH OF ROBINS 



It has always been rather a matter of regret 

 to me that we have to journey along to the middle 

 of the alphabet to get the first letter in the name 

 Robin. The bird thus designated should have 

 been given a name commencing with the first 

 letter of the alphabet for the excellent reason that, 

 in the order of time, he comes first in our acquaint- 

 ance with our bird neighbors. I have never known, 

 in the North, a single individual who will not put 

 him first in his identification of birds, and even 

 in the South, in this respect, I rather think he 

 scores over the ubiquitous Mocking Bird. He 

 practically is the outer guard to the bird king- 

 dom and later on a royal conductor into the 

 inner shrine, for a person who does not know a 

 Robin, does not know a thing of any bird, and 

 the person who knows a Robin well, as a rule 

 knows a whole lot about a lot of other birds. 

 This will not seem strange when we call to mind 

 the fact that Cock Robin is not only a splendid 

 teacher of chart classes, but gets himself talked 



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