I. THE ROBIN. 25 



following account of its mode of dressing its dinners 

 may be depended on : I take it from an old book 

 on Natural History, but find it, more or less, con- 

 firmed by others : " It takes a worm by one 

 extremity in its beak, and beats it on the 

 ground till the inner part comes away. Then 

 seiziftg it in a similar manner by the other end, 

 it entirely cleanses the outer part, which alone it 

 eats." 



. One's first impression is that this must be a sin- 

 gularly unpleasant operation for the worm, however 

 fastidiously delicate and exemplary in the robin. 

 But I suppose the real meaning is, that as a worm 

 lives by passing earth through its body, the robin 

 merely compels it to quit this — not ill-gotten, indeed, 

 but now quite unnecessary — wealth. We human 

 creatures, who have lived the lives of worms, collect- 

 ing dust, are served by Death in exactly the same 

 manner. 



23. You will find that the robin's beak, then, is 

 a very prettily representative one of general bird 

 power. As a weapon, it is very formidable indeed ; 

 he can kill an adversary of his own kind with 

 one blow of it in the throat ; and is so pugnacious, 

 " valde pugnax," says Linnaeus, " ut non una arbor 

 duos capiat erithacos," — "no single tree can hold 

 two cock-robins ; " and for precision of seizure, the 



