CHAPTER IV 



SOME BIRDS 

 " Hast thou named all the birds without a gun ?" 



I DO not propose to write an essay upon the 

 ornithology of the island, but simply to 

 tell something of the familiar feathered 

 friends who spend the summer with us ; and of 

 them all, none is more welcome than the Robin. 

 For the first year or two of our life here we 

 never saw a robin, and with good reason, for 

 there were no grassy lawns, and not a worm to 

 furnish food. I feel quite sure about this, for as we 

 dug the land over, we never saw a trace of one ; 

 so finally we sent over to the mainland and got 

 five or six quarts of squirming redmen, which 

 we planted in various places on the island. I 

 confess this was not done with a view to attract- 

 ing the robin, but solely for the benefit of those 

 " Anglers with the Fly " who were beginning to 

 visit us in ever-increasing numbers. These gen- 

 tlemen all spend hours arranging and re-arranging 



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