ave Spee oe 
Cornell University 
{thaca, New York 14856 
OUR FRIENDS, THE BIRDS. 79 
weather is mild. Laura told the following story about 
a pair of Robins that she had observed: 
“Last summer I spent many happy hours watch- 
ing a pair of Robins that had built their nest in a large 
oak tree whose branches almost touched my chamber 
window. I happened to see them when they alighted 
on a branch in plain sight and began talking about the 
April weather. I soon found they were searching for a 
place for their nest, and I saw them bring grass and 
mud and attach it carefully to a horizontal bough they 
had selected as a safe place. It was interesting to 
watch them, but I was disappointed that they were sat- 
isfied with so rough a house. Mr. and Mrs. Robin 
were very pretty lovers, and as they belong to a musi- 
cal family I supposed they would have the artistic tem- 
perament, but I found that they were not even good 
artisans. My mother and aunt said that they consid- 
ered them very noisy neighbors, and they told me one 
day that they thought they were quarrelsome, but they 
never seemed to make harsh noises unless something 
outside of their family relations troubled them, so I did 
not mind their noise although they were always talk- 
ing. 
‘One morning I discovered that by leaning out of 
my window I could look right into the nest, and I saw 
four beautiful greenish blue eggs. I found out then 
why my best dress is called Robin’s egg blue. After 
this I never left my room in the morning without peep- 
ing into the nest, but one morning Mrs. Robin must 
