BIRDS AND MAN 55 



flying from twig to twig and occasionally alight- 

 ing on the ground, keeping company with him, 

 sometimes sitting quite still a yard from his 

 hand. The gardener is usually attended by a 

 friendly robin, and when he turns up the soil 

 the bird will come down close to his feet to 

 pick up the small grubs and worms. Is it not 

 probable that the tameness of the tame young 

 robin so frequently met with is, like that of 

 the robin who keeps company with the gardener 

 or woodman, an acquired habit ; that the young 

 bird has made the discovery that when a person 

 is moving about athong the plants, picking fruit 

 perhaps, lurking insects are disturbed at the roots 

 and small spiders and caterpillars shaken from 

 the leaves ? It is certain that birds have exceed- 

 ingly sharp eyes and retentive memories. 



Among the birds of the homestead the swallow 

 is another somewhat exceptional species in his 

 way of regarding man. He is too much a 

 creature of the air to take any pleasure in the 

 company of heavy animals, bound to earth ; the 

 distance is too great for sympathy to exist. 

 When we consider how closely he is bound and 

 how much he is to us, it is hard to believe that 



