MOOR-EENS IN HYDE PARK. 
125 
Eastern and Western; for its aerial beauty is 
without parallel in nature ; but the living birds, 
with the exception of the unfortunate captives in 
cages, are not with us. 
A robin redbreast in a cage 
Puts all heaven in a rage, 
sings Blake, prophet and poet ; and for " robin 
redbreast" I read every feathered creature en- 
dowed with the marvellous faculty of flight. Wild, 
and loving their safety and liberty, they keep at a 
distance, at the end of the garden or in the nearest 
grove, where from their perches they suspiciously 
watch our movements, always waiting to be en- 
couraged, waiting to feed on the crumbs that fall 
from our table and are wasted, and on the blight- 
ing insects that ring us round with their living 
multitudes. 
