340 
INSECTIVOROUS BIRDS. 
in warbling echoes from the low copse and shady glen. 
Our American bird has not, however, the compass and 
variety of that familiar and much loved songster ; but his 
freedom and willingness to please, render him an univer- 
sal favorite, and he now comes, as it were, with the wel- 
come prelude to the general concert, about to burst upon 
us from all the green woods and blooming orchards. With 
this pleasing association with the opening season, amidst 
the fragrance of flowers, and the improving verdure of the 
fields, we listen with peculiar pleasure to the simple song 
of the Robin. The confidence he reposes in us by mak- 
ing his abode in our gardens and orchards, the frankness 
and innocence of his manners, besides his vocal powers 
to please, inspire respect and attachment even in the 
truant school-boy, and his exposed nest is but rarely mo- 
lested. He owes, however, this immunity in no small 
degree to the fortunate name which he bears ; as the 
favorite Robin Redbreast, said to have covered, with a 
leafy shroud, the lost and wandering C£ babes in the 
wood/ 5 * is held in universal respect in every part of 
Europe, where he is known by endearing names, and so 
familiar in winter that he sometimes taps at the window, 
or enters the house in search of crumbs, and, like the 
domestic fowls, claims his welcome pittance at the 
farmer’s door. 
The nest of this species is often on the horizontal 
branch of an apple tree, or in a bush or tree in the 
woods, and so large, as to be scarcely ever wholly con- 
cealed. The materials, chiefly leaves, old grass, and some- 
times whitish moss ( Bceomyces Sp.), are cemented to- 
gether inside by a plastering of bog-mud, often filled 
with fibrous roots, somewhat after the manner of the 
Thrush, but the interior is lined with short, dry, rotten 
* A well known legend to this effect. 
