THE ROBIN REDBREAST. 
21 
the Wood,” however, that the Robin is mainly indebted for this characteristic. 
There it is told how 
“ No burial this pretty pair 
From any man receives, 
Till Robin Redbreast piously 
Did cover them with leaves.” 
Naturally Shakespeare did not forget this trait of the bird, and in a beautiful 
passage of “Cymbeline,” says— 
“ With fairest flowers, 
Whilst summer lasts, and I live here, Fidele, 
I’ll sweeten thy sad grave: thou shalt not lack 
The flower that’s like thy face, pale primrose, nor 
The azured harebell, like thy veins; no, nor 
The leaf of eglantine, whom not to slander, 
Out-sweetened not thy breath; the Ruddock would 
With charitable bill bring thee all this, 
Yea, and furr’d moss besides, when flowers are none, 
To winter-ground thy corse.”—(IV. 2, 218). 
And Collins, in strains fully as sweet, to adduce one more example, dwells on it 
in his dirge— 
“ The Redbreast oft at evening hours 
Shall kindly lend his little aid 
With hoary moss and gathered flowers 
To deck the ground where thou art laid.” 
Herrick, too, alludes to the same belief; while Drayton draws the useful moral— 
“ Covering with moss the dead’s unclosed eye, 
The little Redbreast teacheth charitie.” 
Throughout Germany, as well as in England, this legend of the Redbreast is 
current. 
If this is one side of the Robin’s character, it must be owned that he has 
another, and that not a very amiable set of traits. His very friendliness often 
degenerates into mischief and impudence, while he is one of the most pugnacious 
of our birds. The other frequenters of the lawn have a wholesome dread of his 
approach, and retire from a dainty, to compare little things with great, much as 
a jackal slinks off from a carcase when the tiger which killed it draws near. 
During March especially he fights with his rivals on very little provocation, and 
not unfrequently one of the combatants loses his life in the struggle. We once 
found a pair of Robins encountering each other with much ferocity in spring. 
One had its wing broken, and was so injured that we easily caught it; but on 
putting it down under a neighbouring bush the other immediately flew to it, and 
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