AMERICAN ROBIN. 
Merula migratoria SwAINs. 
Puate I. Fie. 1. 
When the willows gleam along the brooks, 
And the grass grows green in sunny nooks, 
In the sunshine and the rain 
I hear the Robin in the lane 
Singing, “Cheerily, 
Cheer up, cheer up; 
Cheerily, cheerily, 
Cheer up.” 
But the snow is still 
Along the walis and on the hill. 
The days are cold, the nights forlorn, 
For one is here and one is gone. 
“Tut, tut. Cheerily, 
Cheer up, cheer up; 
Cheerily, cheerily, 
Cheer up.”’ 
When spring hopes seem to wane, 
I hear the joyful strain— 
A song at night, a song at morn, 
A lesson deep to me is borne, 
Hearing, ‘‘Cheerily, 
Cheer up, cheer up; 
Cheerily, cheerily, 
Cheer up.” 
Als HE early spring flowers still sleep beneath snow and ice, the cold north and west 
¢q winds still wildly sweep the northern part of our country. All nature seems 
dead. Only a small number of feathered winter visitants have come from the far North 
and move about in the trees and shrubbery of the garden. Crossbills and Redpolls have 
already departed for their northern home. A few Kinglets, Tree Sparrows, Titmice, and 
Cedar Birds swing themselves on the snow-laden boughs of the pines and spruces. 
Suddenly and entirely unexpected a loud song of jubilation is carolled from the top of 
a neighboring elm. There, in the top of yonder dark-green pine is perched another one 
of these singers. They are Robins just returned from their winter quarters, heralding 
in reverberating jubilation the approach of spring. This, our beautiful familiar Thrush, 
certainly merits the name ‘‘harbinger of the vernal season,” for it is one of the first of 
our birds to arrive from the South. In the Northern States it often makes its appear- 
ance before the middle of March, though the great majority does not arrive till the end 
of that month. The inclement weather which often persists for several weeks, and 
the consequent scarcity of food sometimes force the bird to return southward again. 
Usually, however, it will remain in spite of the wintery garment covering nature, search- 
