ROBIN LIFE 



their days were devoted to wandering about over the old pas- 

 tures and profiting by parental instruction in the different 

 methods of discovering where cutworms crawl. He showed 

 them also where grew the wild fruits and berries which are 

 more to the taste of robins still in speckled livery. Besides, 

 they were beginning to give more or less successful imitations 

 of the father's song as he sang of hope to his brooding mate, 

 but not until the years have brought them experience will 

 they sing with his fervor. 



When the new brood come from the nest, the parent 

 birds care for them jointly. The summer's song and care 

 have left their voices weaker, but it has not affected their 

 happiness. After a day devoted to nursery duties, as he sits 

 on a higher limb than in the springtime, hear him calling to 

 his faithful mate his message of love — and as he pauses, seem- 

 ingly for her approval, at the end of his lay, her tender 

 "sweet, sweet," called from a bough not far below, agrees 

 fully with our own sentiments. 



It is difficult to imagine how any one could fail to cher- 

 ish these interesting tenants of our groves. They should be 

 protected on utilitarian as well as sesthetic grounds. Some 

 one has most fitly called them the "gtiardian angels of our 

 soil." The cutworms and other harmful forms of life which 

 they destroy, if left alone would do more damage than 

 one could easily estimate ; the little fruit they consume — never 

 their staple food, but merely an occasional luxury — ^is noth- 

 ing more than their rightful wage. Besides, cidtivated fruits 

 are left undisturbed when there are wild fruits conveniently 

 near. 



As the summer wanes, the older birds cease to look for 

 food on the ground and betake themselves to haunts where 

 autumn berries, wild ivy, grape and deer berries are found. 



163 



