138 BRITISH BIEDS. 



before they use the power of inflicting death ! Then, instead of " What shall 

 we kill ? " rather let us think, " What can we keep aUve ? " 



It is not, however, a fresh Act to which he who loves birds would 

 appeal, but to what is far better — the inner feehngs, the hearts of EngHsh- 

 men. What has saved the lives of millions of Robins ? No Act of ParHa- 

 ment, but the fact that the people believe that 



" The Robin Redbreast and the Wren 

 Are God Almighty's cock and hen." 



So did they regard that historic bird which, when Mary II. (Stuart Mary), 

 Queen of England, came to her last resting-place in Westminster Abbey, kept 

 guard over her coffin ; for we are told, in Stanley's ' Memorials of West- 

 minster Abbey,' p. 197 (edit. 1869), that "a Robin Redbreast which had 

 taken refuge in the Abbey was constantly seen on her hearse, and was looked 

 upon with tender afi^ection for its seeming love to the lamented Queen," 

 Mr. C. T. S. Birch Reynardson says, in ' Down the Road,' p. 74 (a book 

 written in a hearty and genuine spirit), " On one occasion I remember 

 counting twenty-seven Kites \^Milviis ictinus] in the air at the same time." 

 This was over " Monk's Wood, famed in the Fitz- William country." These 

 are gone. Is our country to lose all such scenes as this ? 



Few species, perhaps, present more variations in plumage than the 

 present one. These have all been worked out in Dresser's ' Birds of Europe,' 

 part 2. Every lady knows that rough weather, sea-air, hot sun, rain, &c. 

 spoil her choicest clothing. It is very nearly the same with the plumage 

 of birds, which life alone keeps, by continual restitution, in their pristine 

 beauty. Dead feathers never can be like living feathers : their gloss 

 is gone. 



Mr. Dresser says, in " some southern latitudes, where the Kestrel is a resi- 

 dent species, the bird assumes a dark phase of coloration, and thus is represented 

 by several local races." Again, " in a series of specimens which Lord Walden 

 was kind enough to submit to us from India, Ceylon, and Burmah, we noticed 

 many very pale- coloured specimens along with other individuals which it 



