Robin, American 



Too much stress is laid on the mischief done by the 

 robins in the cherry trees and strawberry patches and 

 too little upon the quantity of worms and insects they 

 devour. 



NELTJE BLANCH AN. Bird Neighbors. 23 



His flight is rapid, clear-cut and straight. Unlike 

 many birds, he moves as if he were going somewhere. 



FLORENCE A. MERRIAM. Birds Through an Opera Glass. 2 



The robin is the Philomel of morning twilight in New 

 England and in all the northeastern states of this continent. 

 If his sweet notes were wanting, the mornings would be 

 like a landscape without the rose, or a summer-evening sky 

 without tints. He is the chief performer in the delightful 



anthem that welcomes the rising day Remove 



the robin from this woodland orchestra and it would be left 

 without a soprano. 



FLAGG. A Year With the Birds. 25 



I know of no other bird that is able to give so many 

 shades of meaning to a single note, running through the 

 entire gamut of its possible feelings. From the soft and 

 mellow quality, almost as coaxing as a dove's note, with 

 which it encourages its young when just out of the nest, 

 the tone, with minute gradations, becomes more vehement 

 and then harsh and with quickened reiteration, until it 

 expresses the greatest intensity of a bird's emotions. Love, 

 contentment, anxiety, exultation, rage what other animal 

 can throw such multifarious meaning into its tone? And 



118 



