The Western Robin 
permit an approach as close as ten feet, especially when foraging on the 
greensward of the meadows among the tethered ponies. At times during 
the day we hear bursts of robin melody. But at early morning and late 
evening the robin chorus pervades far and wide what would otherwise 
be a nearly perfect stillness. The trite word ‘carol’ to my mind and ear 
describes the robin’s song satisfactorily; and several robins caroling at 
once furnish a type of bird music unapproached in pleasing quality by 
an}' other species 1 have ever heard.” 
The robin’s song in its common form is too well known to most of 
us to require particular description, and too truly music to lend itself 
well to syllabic imitation. There is something homey and substantial 
about it which makes us give thanks for common things, and accept 
without analysis—as we 
do salt and sunshine and 
breath of orange blos¬ 
soms. 
Robin conceives 
many passages which 
are too high for him, and 
these he hums inaudibly, 
or follows in silent 
thought, like a tenor 
with a cold. When the 
theme reaches his com¬ 
pass again, he resumes, 
not where he left off but 
at the end of the un¬ 
heard passage. It must 
be confessed, however 
reluctantly, that the 
song of the Western 
Robin is a little more 
subdued in character 
than that of the East¬ 
ern. The bird is a little 
less devoted to his art, 
and the total volume of 
sound yielded by any 
one chorus has never 
equalled, in my expe¬ 
rience, that of a similar „ T 
* u IT Taken in Idaho Photo by H. J. 
eiTort in the .Last. nest and eggs of western robin 
