20r» OUR NATIVE SONGSTERS. 



guilty of sacrilege ; not so much on account of 

 the daring Jiberty they had taken with the sacred 

 volume, as for having plundered the Trope -ends 

 out of the belfry, wherewith to construct their 

 habitation. Be this as it may, the old women of 

 the village took it into thcii; heads that the cir- 

 cumstance of the robin's building on the Bible was 

 liiglily ominous, and foreboded no good to the 

 vicar. It so happened that he died in the month 

 of June of tlie second year of the bird's building 

 in the churcli; an eveut which no doubt con- 

 firmed the old women in their-^uperstition, 



' Ni frustra augurium vani <locuere parentes.' — Virrjil. 

 ' l'ule3.s 

 My parents taught me augury in vain ; ' — 



Trapp's Trantlatinu. 



and will be renuinlu'red and handed down to pos- 

 terity, for the benefit of any future vicar, should 

 the robins agahi make a similar selection." 



The redbreast loses, in summer, nearly all the 

 hue to which it owes its name. Tlie first appear- 

 ance of the red colour is about the end of August, 

 but the bird is not fully red-breasted till the close 

 of September. Young redbreasts are very diflerent 

 in plumage from the adult birds, as they are 



