ROBIN LORE 



blast; hungry, he chirps before your door. Oh, my child, 

 then, in gratitude, throw a few crumbs to poor redbreast!" 



j Shakespeare refers to the robin as "the ruddock with 

 cjiaritable bill." 



In Germany and the British Isles the killing of a robin 

 causes the cow of the slayer to give bloody milk. 



In Bohemia the destruction of a robin's nest is believed 

 to bring palsy to the hands of the destroyer, while in the 

 Tyrol such a wrongdoer is expected to be visited by epilepsy. 

 In Suffolk a broken leg is the natural result of breaking the 

 eggs of a robin. 



The story of the "Babes in the Wood," taken from a 

 play written in 1601, is but an expression of the still older 

 belief that robins cover dead bodies with leaves, on finding 

 them unburied. 



"The robin redbreast, if he find a man or woman dead, 



will cover his face with moss; and some think that if the 



body should remain unburied he will cover the whole body." 



'^-Johnson's "Cornucopia" published late in the sixteenth 



century. 



THE ROBIN 



My old Welsh neighbor, over the way, 

 Crept slowly out in the sun of spring. 



Pushed from her ears the locks of gray, 

 And listened to hear the robin sing. 



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