400 NATURAL HISTORY READER. 



the robin, who sat on a dry branch within a yard of my 

 cheek. I guessed what had brought him : he was very 

 cold, his ruffled back humped as round as a ball, and his 

 tail drooping almost perpendicular with his legs, as if it 

 was a little brown peg to lean on, like that on which the 

 traveling Tyrolean merchant rests his pack. 



14. He looked at me with his large, black eye ; then, 

 with a flirt of his tail and a bow with his head, indicated 

 that, if I had no objection, he should like to descend to the 

 place which I occupied, the object of which he expressed 

 by turning his head sidelong, and directing one eye into 

 the black earth which my foot had beaten bare in the snow. 

 I immediately drew back a couple of feet, and he instantly 

 dropped into the spot of mold, peeped and picked under 

 every leaf and clod of earth, and, when there was nothing 

 more, hopped up on the guard of my rifle, on which I was 

 leaning, and, turning his head, looked at me with his upper 

 eye. I again stepped forward, and recommenced my foot- 

 exercise, during which he returned to his branch, examin- 

 ing my progress with some impatience. As soon as my 

 foot was removed he again dropped into the hollow, and 

 busily collected all the little grubs and chrysales which, 

 though too small for me to see as I stood, I knew abounded 

 beneath the sere leaves and thatch of moss and sticks. 



15. In this manner I repeated his supply several times, on 

 one of which, when I was too long, or he too impatient, he 

 dropped from his perch and hovered over the space in which 

 my foot was at work, and, as I continued, lighted on the 

 point of the. other shoe, and remained there, peeping into 

 the hollow, until I withdrew my foot, and then descended 

 to finish his repast. When he was satisfied, he ruffed his 

 feathers, looked up sidelong to me, and, after a shake of 

 satisfaction, resumed his perch close to my head, and, after 

 pruning and oiling his feathers, mounted another branch 

 higher, and opened his little throat with that most sad, 



