AND THE ROBIN. 93 



piece of moss produced in furtherance of a nest, 

 wherein to raise their future young. Certainly, 

 in this case, neither love nor warmth could have 

 had any hand in tuning the winter lyre of these 

 little sons of Orpheus. 



It now and then happens that we are led 

 astray by our own feelings when we pronounce 

 judgment on the actions of irrational animals. 

 There is a pretty good proof of this in the 

 story which we have of the American Polecat.— 

 On being told that this ill-scented animal dis- 

 charges a "fluid given him by Nature as a 

 defence," I cannot refrain from asking, by 

 what power of intuition the polecat is con- 

 vinced that a smell, naturally agreeable to 

 itself, is absolutely intolerable to man ? Did 

 birds and beasts speak an intelligible language, 

 as they are said to have done in the days of 

 Ovid, we should get at their true history with 

 greater ease ; and our ornithology would be 

 much more free from the romance which at 

 present pervades it. 



The wren is at once distinguished in ap- 

 pearance from our smaller British songsters by 

 the erect position of its tail. Its restlessness, 

 too, renders it particularly conspicuous ; for, 



