A MARTINET IN FEATHERS 
They ’ll come again to the apple-tree — 
Robin and all the rest — 
When the orchard branches are fair to see, 
And the prettiest thing in the world will be 
The building of the nest. 
Margaret E. Sangster. 
HIS Spring, only a few feet from my 
A window, a pair of robins built their 
nest of mud and grass on the horizontal 
limb of a large oak. There were no interven- 
ing branches, and except for a few leaves I 
had an uninterrupted view of robin house- 
keeping. From the first the male was a 
tyrant. Several times when the mother had 
carefully shaped the foundations of the nest 
to suit her taste, he would contemptuously 
poke it away, and remodel according to his 
own ideas. Toward the last, however, he 
seemed to realize the necessity of finishing, 
or he grew tired of teasing, for they worked 
together more amiably, and constructed a 
