AND THE ROBIN. 



99 



familiarity is inherent in him, and not acquired. 

 I am not acquainted with any other wild bird 

 that possesses it, 



In Italy this social disposition of his does 

 not guarantee him from destruction by the 

 hand of man. At the bird-market near the 

 Rotunda in Rome, I have counted more than 

 fifty robin-redbreasts lying dead on one stall. 

 " Is it possible," said I to the vender, " that you 

 can kill and eat these pretty songsters ? " ' ( Yes," 

 said he, with a grin ; " and if you will take a 

 dozen of them home for your dinner to-day, 

 you will come back for two dozen to-morrow." 



It is the innocent familiarity of this sweet 

 warbler which causes it to be such a favourite 

 with all ranks of people in England. Nobody 

 ever thinks of doing it an injury. " That's 

 poor cock-robin ! — don't hurt poor cock-robin," 

 says the nursery maid, when her infant charge 

 would wish to capture it Mrs. Barbauld has 

 introduced cock-robin into her plaintive story 

 of Pity; and when we study the habits of 

 this bird, and see that his intimacy with us far 

 surpasses that of any other known wild one, we 

 no longer wonder that the author of that pa- 

 thetic ballad The Children in the Wood should 



H 2 



