WHAT I HAVE DONE WITH BIRDS 



blood, of how Christ blessed it and commissioned it ever to be the 

 friend of mankind, always to sing to him of good cheer. Of how 

 its eggs are blue-green like the sky above the sea, and how to this 

 day the Robin is man's best friend among the birds, because he 

 would scarcely have fruit crops at all, were it not for the insects 

 it destroys. During the story my eyes were fixed on the dark- 

 gray bird with its bright breast, singing through the rain the 

 words I could plainly distinguish, "Cheer up, dearie!" 



We were taught that a blessing came to any home with the 

 Robins and every inducement was extended to them to build with 

 us. The first year in a home of my own there were no Robins. By 

 the second my overtures were accepted and every summer they 

 are sure to build about the orchard, often in the vines on the 

 veranda and several times where the logs cross at a corner under 

 a porch they have set up housekeeping. 



Always we have extended to them every protection and as- 

 sistance in our power to give to a bird. Last year we had a Robin 

 in the wistaria vines on the veranda, and the birds in feeding 

 perched on the logs within a yard of me and flew back and forth 

 across me as I lay in a hammock within a few feet of them. \ An- 

 other pair will find their last year's nest in the mulberry west of 

 the cabin, only needing relining when spring comes again, and a 

 third can return to the elm by the back porch.\ 



But it is of Robins of a few years ago 01 which I tell, as these 

 pictures are of them. One summer nine years gone a pair of 

 young Robins established themselves in a plum-tree close to the 

 back door. They were birds that had been hatched the previous 

 summer, shy and nervous as birds in their first brooding are 

 likely to be. They attracted my attention by their timidity. I 

 cautioned my household to be especially careful in no way to 



