ROBIN. 



ERITHACUS RUBECULA. 



Family PASSERID^E. Sub-family TURBINE. Genus ERITHACUS. 

 Redbreast Robin Redbreast Robinet Ruddock. 



We all love the Robin : he is so confiding and fear- 

 less. Watch the gardener turning over the soil or 

 hoeing up the weeds, and near him you are sure to 

 see our little friend perched, waiting to hop down and 

 carry off the first worm or insect that shows its head. 

 And how trustingly he will come to the window-sill on 

 a wintry morning and carry off the bread-crumbs 

 placed for him, leaving his little footprints in the snow 

 behind. And yet he is one of the most pugnacious 

 little birds we have got, and will fight any of his own 

 species that offer battle until "all is blue". He does 

 not seem so quarrelsome with other birds, however, 

 for Meyer tells us of one kept in a cage with other 

 pets, that was always the first to make friends with 

 any new-comer. At Bramshaw, in the New Forest, 

 a few years ago a Robin took up its abode in an old 

 woman's cottage, and refused to leave it ; it seemed 



