152 TAME ROBINS. [PART II. 
in January, when he had migrated to Rome in 
hopes of finding the warm weather he had vainly 
sought at Pau, another, in which he said, “The 
ice about the fountains, &c. is just beginning to 
shew signs of thawing.” During all the early part 
of the winter the weather had been, in the south 
of England, remarkably dry. 
There were about the same house a few years ago 
a pair of Robins, who were more than usually tame, 
and whose determination to identify themselves with 
the family, and make themselves at home, was not 
a little amusing. They used regularly to come 
into the dining-room at breakfast time, and help 
themselves to whatever they fancied, modestly con- 
fining themselves, however, generally to the side- 
table, where the tail of one was often to be seen 
appearing above a pie-dish, the rest of him being 
busily engaged inside, “pegging away” at a hard- 
boiled egg, or something nice of the kind. When 
the spring came on they commenced a regular 
contest with the housemaids, of which the draw- 
ing-rooms formed the scene of action; the robins 
insisting that they would build there, and Fanny 
and Co. insisting that they should not. “ Hapelles 
FSurcd, tamen usque recurrent.’ As soon as a nest 
was commenced in one place, in went Fanny's 
