24 love's meinie. 



22. Nevertheless, since as sword, as trowel, or as 

 pocket-comb, the beak of the bird has to be pointed, 

 the collection of seeds may be conveniently entrusted 

 to this otherwise penetrative instrument, and such 

 food as can only be obtained by probing crevices, 

 splitting open fissures, or neatly and minutely pick- 

 ing things up, is allotted, pre-eminently, to the bird 

 species. 



The food of the robin, as you know, is very mis- 

 cellaneous. Linnaeus says of the Swedish one, that 

 it is "delectatus euonymi baccis,"—" delighted with 

 dogwood berries," — the dogwood growing abun- 

 dantly in Sweden, as once in Forfarshire, where it 

 grew, though only a bush usually in the south, 

 Avith trunks a foot or eighteen inches in dia- 

 meter, and the tree thirty feet high. But the 

 Swedish robin's taste for its berries is to be noted 

 by you, because, first, the dogwood berry is com- 

 monly said to be so bitter that it is not eaten by 

 birds (Loudon, "Arboretum," ii., 497, i.) ; and, 

 secondly, because it is a pretty coincidence that 

 this most familiar of household birds should feed 

 fondly from the tree which gives the housewife 

 her spindle,— the proper name of the dogwood in 

 English, French, and German being alike " Spindle- 

 tree." It feeds, however, with us, certainly, most 

 on worms and insects. I am not sure how far the 



