8 BIRDS THROUGH AN OPERA-GLASS. 



about the adobe wall, though none inside. Per- 

 haps the weather was too warm for a feather bed ! 

 or was this frivolous lady bird thinking so 

 much of fashion and adornment she could spare 

 no time on homely comfort ? 

 Longfellow says : 



"There are no birds in last year's nest," 



but on a brace in an old cow shed I know of, there 

 is a robin's nest that has been used for several 

 years. A layer of new material lias been added 

 to the old structure each time, so that it is now 

 eight inches high and bids fair soon to rival the 

 fourteen story flat houses of New York. A re- 

 markable case is given in the " Naturalist " of a 

 robin that had no " bump of locality," and distri- 

 buted its building material impartially over nearly 

 thirty feet of the outer cornice of a house. 



You may look for robins almost anywhere, but 

 they usually prefer dry open land, or the edge of 

 woodland, being averse to the secluded life of 

 their relatives, the thrushes, who build in the for- 

 est. Those I find in the edge of the woods are 

 much shyer than those living about the house, 

 probably from the same reason that robins and 

 others of our most friendly Eastern birds are wild 

 and suspicious in the uninhabited districts of the 

 West or, who will say there are no recluses 

 among birds as well as men ? 



The flight and song of the robin are character- 

 istic. The flight is rapid, clear cut, and straight. 



