OCTOBER 231 



'Well/ he replied, 'I suppose if I did not eat it 

 somebody else would ! ' 



It occurred to me that similar excuse has often been 

 made to serve palliation of more grievous offences. 

 Kaiser Wilhelm n. has declared that if his armies had 

 not seized and occupied Belgium, the French were 

 prepared to do so. 



XLII 



Among birds reckoned as inhabiting the British Isles 

 (less than four hundred species), perhaps jugi-aticm 

 none is so popularly known and easily recog- of the Eobin 

 nised as Robin-Redbreast, and none is less generally 

 suspected of the migratory habit. Nevertheless, in 

 common with every other British song-bird (one may 

 hardly class that confirmed stay-at-home, the house- 

 sparrow, as a song-bird), vast numbers of robins arrive 

 on our shores and depart from them seasonally. No 

 doubt many robins are permanent residents, just as a 

 percentage (much smaller than is commonly known) of 

 blackbirds and thrushes haunt the same lawns and 

 shrubberies throughout their lives ; but these are ex- 

 ceptions to the rule which constrains the bulk of the 

 feathered population of the northern temperate zone 

 to shift quarters twice a year. Almost the only birds 

 which do not conform to this rule are the house- 

 sparrow aforesaid, and gallinaceous fowls such as 

 grouse, ptarmigan, pheasants, partridges, etc. Lap- 

 wings, for instance, may be seen in all parts of England 

 and southern Scotland during every month hi the 

 year ; none the less it is certain that the whole body of 



