THE ROBIN 
By T. GILBERT PEARSON 
The National Association of Audubon 
Educational Leaflet No. 46 
No bird holds so prominent a place in the minds 
people as the Robin. It is distinctively a companion of 
ever his hand has cleared the wilderness the Robin has 
Mexico to the Yukon travelers meet it, and the resi- 
dents will tell him of its coming and going. It has 
passed into the literature of the country, and one 
reads of it in books of science and of romance. Poets have woven its 
image into their witchery of rhyme, lovers fondly spy upon its wooing, 
and by the fireside of every household children lisp its name when stories 
are told in the twilight. 
Heedless indeed is the ear that does not harken when the Robin 
sings. Loud and clear it calls at dawn, and sweet are the childhood 
memories it brings of fresh green fields swept by gentle winds and 
of apple-blossoms filled with dew. 
One spring a pair built their nest on the limb of a balsam standing 
beside a much-used walk near my home. In gathering the material 
for the nest the greatest care was taken by the Robins to work at those 
hours when there was the least chance of being observed ; thus the 
greater part was done in the early morning, when few people were 
astir. Perhaps one reason for this was that the blades of dead grass, 
twigs, and other nest-material, were then damp and pliable from the 
dews of night, and were much more easily woven into position than 
after they had become dry and brittle. Only during the last few days 
of construction did I detect the birds working in the afternoon. The 
mud for the nest was found by a pool at the end of a ; horse-trough. 
On April 18 the nest appeared to be completed, for no more materials 
were brought. On the 226 . the female began sitting. I could see her 
tail extending over one side of the nest, her bill pointing upward at a 
sharp angle from the other. She flew off the first 
day when the half-hundred boys who frequented the D< Biits tlC 
walk came along on their way to dinner, but she 
soon became accustomed to them, and would sit quietly, although 
numerous heads passed within five or six feet. No one disturbed the 
nest with its four blue eggs, and on May 6 I saw her feeding the young. 
Four days after this event I noticed the heads of the younglings bobbing 
over the rim of the nest. They were gaining strength rapidly. 
The morning of May 17 was cool, and a drizzling rain had been fall- 
ing for some hours. This dreary morning happened to come on the day 
181 
Societies 
of the American 
man, and where- 
followed. From 
A General 
Favorite 
