30 
BIRDS 
sonably predict a domicile of equal fit- 
ness and elegance. At least I demand 
of him as clean and handsome a nest 
as the King-Bird’s, whose harsh jingle, 
compared with Robin’s evening melody, 
is as the clatter of pots and kettles be¬ 
side the tone of a flute. 1 love his note 
and ways better even than those of the 
Orchard-Starling or the Baltimore Oriole; 
yet his nest, compared with theirs, is a 
half-subterranean hut contrasted with a 
Roman villa. There is something courtly 
and poetical in a pensile nest. Next to a 
castle in the air is a dwelling suspended 
to the slender branch of a tall tree, 
swayed and rocked forever by the wind. 
Why need wings be afraid of falling? 
Why build only where boys can climb? 
After all, we must set it down to the ac¬ 
count of Robin’s democratic turn; he is 
count of Robin’s democratic turn; he is 
no aristocrat but one of the people; and 
therefore we should expect stability in 
his workmanship, rather than elegance. 
Another April bird, which makes her 
appearance sometimes earlier and some¬ 
times later than Robin, and whose mem- 
