Ladyday to Whitsunday 
coo continuously. The growths in the birch-trees called 
u birk knots ” or “Witch knots” are thought by some people 
to be the nests of the cushat, cuschette, or cushie doo. This 
name comes from the Anglo-Saxon cusceote . “ Birk ” is from 
the Anglo-Saxon byre; Danish , birk ; Icelandic and Swedish, 
biork. It has also been derived back to a Hindoo word birchk , 
a tree. It was also called “ bark-tree,” because its bark was 
used in many different ways. The robins are delightfully tame 
and hop quite close to any one at work in the garden. How is 
it they should be called “redbreasts” when the colour of their 
breasts is really orange ? Physalis Alkengi , the , plant that 
has such pretty orange-coloured seed-vessels like Chinese 
lanterns (whence it is sometimes called the “ lantern plant ”), 
is also sometimes the “ redbreast plant.” I pursued it 
through several catalogues under this name, thinking it was 
something new, and was rather disappointed to find it was just 
the Winter Cherry I knew quite well. A handsome larger 
variety has lately been introduced from Japan. There is, I 
am glad to say, a feeling in Scotland against taking robins 3 
nests, as evinced by the old nursery rhyme : 
The Laverock and the Lintie, the Robin and the Wren, 
If ye harry their nests ye’ll never thrive again ; 
while another version declares that 
Robinet and Jenny Wren 
Are God Almighty’s Cock and Hen. 
Him that harries their nest 
Never shall his soul have rest. 
I think a pair of robins are building in the laurels by the 
house. 
I like the old legend of the Robin, how he tried to pull 
out the nails when Christ was crucified, and his breast 
became bloodstained in consequence. How bold the spar- 
rows are ; more audacious, I think, even than the robins ! A 
sparrow comes every day to the nursery window, where Boy 
puts crumbs in the hard weather, and out of which window 
I fancy Nurse still shakes the breakfast-cloth. He taps at the 
glass with apparent indignation if he does not find crumbs, 
3i 
