46 The Hawkey e O. and 0. 



ROBINS AHEAD AGAIN. 



BY S. A. BALL. 



To be as big a bird as it is, I don't think the Robin can be ex- 

 celled for shyness and expedition in nest building. 



You may make up your mind each succeeding spring to see 

 the first straw carried and watch the plastering process go on, 

 but they get ahead of you every time — or, at least, of me. Gen- 

 erally the first thing I know, a flutter of wings in the apple or 

 cedar tree attracts my attention, and stepping under it, there, in 

 a crotch, is a nest big enough to accommodate a crow, and noth- 

 ing has been said about it. That tree, too, may stand within ten 

 feet of your door. 



This is the 26th of March, with not even a wild cherry in leaf, 

 and yet I have just returned from the discovery of a Robin's nest 

 all completed, and Mrs. Redbreast snuggled down on' it laying, 

 looking as pleased as Punch. It beats the Jews. 



flow it may be in other places, I can't say; but here on the 

 prairie in south-west Missouri, the 26th of March is the earliest 

 date I have any record of Robins nesting. This pah- have se- 

 lected, as far as my knowledge goes, a most unusual place for 

 building, namely: an old storm-wreeked Martin box. I never 

 before knew a Robin to build anywhere but in a tree or a grape 

 arbor. This old box has blown down and fallen from the top of 

 a tree, in the lower branches of which it has lodged, bottom up- 

 ward. A part of the bottom was knocked off in falling, and this 

 has made an opening sufficiently large to admit the Robins. 

 When I stepped up to make an examination with a view to mak- 

 ing repairs for the Martins, Mrs. Robin cocked her head over 

 the edge of one of the windows, and eyed me with a coolness that 

 reminded me of how many points in law possession constitutes. 

 I instantly withdrew my claim and walked away thinking of what 

 L. O. Pindar says in the fl. O. and O. for this month, where he 

 strikes a note but seldom heard, when he enters a protest against 

 collecting. 



