RED ROBIN 
5 
There can be no two opinions as to the necessity of placing 
this large marshland area under the control of the London 
County Council for the enjoyment of the public. Any manorial 
rights (if existent) may give some trouble to buy up. Private 
owners may prove easier to deal with, except where water 
frontage comes into question. The district as a whole is not 
suited for a vast building estate, else it would have come into 
the property market long ago, though there is little doubt that 
cottage building must go on in the proximity of factories. 
Having thus pointed the way, I have little doubt that all those 
bodies interested in the preservation of open spaces will follow 
up the indications I have given for the acquisition of an open 
space that would crown the record of this great work so far as 
London is concerned. 
Archibald L. Clarke. 
RED ROBIN. 
Some Incidents in a Small Life. 
T the first sign of frost he perched outside my window, 
a gay, pert bird, with ruffled red breast and searching 
eye. Knowing why he had come, I opened my window 
and put out some crumbs on the sill, from whence they 
quickly disappeared. After the first two or three days, during 
which he was rather shy of me, he became so confident as to 
enter the window, and then seemed greatly surprised at his 
bravery. Once inside, however, every vestige of alarm that 
might have remained, vanished. He hopped on to the table and 
examined the things thereon with a critical eye. After sampling 
a few, he was convinced that the bread was the best, and at once 
made a keen onslaught on a loaf, a meal big enough, I think, 
to gratify any robin. His hunger satisfied, he began to preen 
and clean himself, his peculiar actions affording me much amuse- 
ment. This done he actually started to sing, as if in reward of 
my kindness, finished abruptly, and flew through the open 
window into a tree just outside — his favourite perch. No other 
robin dared venture into my garden : he regarded it as his own 
special kingdom, aud kept it as such. Woe betide the unwary, 
strange robin, that ventured within its sacred precincts ! He 
would be driven back by the jealous occupant, and be only too glad 
to beat a hasty retreat. The frost continued for some time, and I 
now regarded red robin as a regular visitor. Meals would have 
seemed dull indeed without his cheery presence. During the 
time he visited me he had become so tame that he would perch 
on my shoulder or take crumbs from my hand. His curiosity 
and anger were aroused once, and only once, by the sight of a 
coloured plaster cast of one of his own kind standing on the 
