THE JAPANESE ROBIN. 



THE JAPANESE -ROBIN. Perhaps, not the least 

 among the beauties and pleasures which our present 

 commercial relations with the empire of Japan 

 afford, are the gorgeous plumage, elegant songsters, 

 so quickly introducing themselves, and so completely 

 charming us. The Japanese have reduced the 

 breeding of birds to a science ; so that one may 

 take any color or even shade to a bird-breeder, and 

 in a short space he will show you a fledgling of 

 just the desired hue. But the natural colors of 

 the robin far surpass those which can be obtained 

 by domestic breeding in cages. " The head of the 

 robin is a bronze-green ; beak yellow ; body the color 

 of a mourning dove ; eyes black, with a circlet of 

 white ; throat cru tint of yellow, shading on the 

 breast into orange ; wing-feathers black, with parti- 

 colored stripes of gold and white ; and tail-feathers 

 glossy black, barred with white so clear, that the 

 bird looks as if he had just been out in an April 

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