REDBREAST. 



ROBIN. ROBItf REDBREAST. RUDDOCK. ROBINET. 



Sylvia rubecvla, PENNANT. FLEMING. 



Motacilla rubecula, MONTAGU. BEWICK. 



Erythaca rubecula, SELBY. GOULD. 



Sylvia. Sylva A wood. Rubecula. Ruler Red ruddy. 



THE thoughts of our earliest years are those, each one of 

 which, 'sere perennius,' abides with us through life, while those 

 of later years pass away, oftentimes like a shadow without 

 recall. Who then is there in whose oldest memory the 

 legendary tale of the 'Babes in the Wood' does not for ever 

 dwell; and who is there in remembrance of it that with the 

 Robin's so-called faults will not 'love him still?' Faults he 

 certainly has, or at least dispositions which would be such 

 in us, but he fulfils to the letter the mission of his nature, 

 and that is what 'no man living' can say of himself. 



An inhabitant of the wildest wood and the gayest garden, 

 the most frequented road, and the most retired lane, the 

 hedge of the pasture field, and the neighbourhood of every 

 country-house, the Robin is an acquaintance of both old and 

 young, and to each and every one he seems like an old friend. 



As you walk along the hedgerow side at almost any season 

 of the year, it may be, 'nescio quid meditans nugarum,' your 

 wandering thought is for the moment arrested by the sight 

 of a Redbreast perched on one of the topmost sprays, or 

 by the sound of the pretty note that its owner warbles 

 before you: you cannot help but stop a moment, and speak 

 a word to the well-known bird, as if to an old acquaintance; 

 and you almost fancy from his winsome attitude, the attention 

 he seems to pay, and the quietness with which he remains, 

 that he understands, if not your language, yet the purport 

 of it, and is aware that you are a friend who will not hurt 

 or harm him. 



