4 BIRDS THROUGH AN OPERA-GLASS. 



fly to the woods for their nooning earlier and 

 earlier as the weather gets warmer. 



You will not have to go far to find your first 

 bird. 



THE ROBIN. 



NEXT to the crow, the robin is probably our best 

 known bird ; but as a few of his city friends have 

 never had the good fortune to meet him, and as he 

 is to be our " unit of measure," it behooves us to 

 consider him well. He is, as every one knows, a 

 domestic bird, with a marked bias for society. 

 Everything about him bespeaks the self-respecting- 

 American citizen. He thinks it no liberty to dine 

 in your front yard, or build his house in a crotch of 

 vour piazza, with the help of the string you have 

 inadvertently left within reach. Accordingly, he 

 fares well, and keeps fat on cherries and straw- 

 berries if the supply of fish-worms runs low. Mr. 

 Robin has one nervous mannerism he jerks his 

 tail briskly when excited. But he is not always 

 looking for food as the woodpeckers appear to be, 

 nor flitting about with nervous restlessness like the 

 warblers, and has, on the whole, a calm, dignified 

 air. With time to meditate when he chooses, like 

 other sturdy, well-fed people, his reflections usually 

 take a cheerful turn ; and when he lapses into a. 

 poetical mood, as he often does at sunrise and 



