The Robin, or Redbreast 227 
Well rewarded if I spy 
Pleasure in thy glancing eye ; 
And, see thee, when thou'st eat thy fill, 
Plume thy breast, and wipe thy bill." 
Langhorne. 
In the winter season, impelled by the potent stimulus 
of hunger, the Eedbreast frequents our barns/ gardens, 
and houses, and often alights, on a sudden, on the rustic 
floor ; where, with his broad eye incessantly open, and 
looking askew upon the company, he picks up eagerly 
the crumbs of bread that fall from the table, and then 
flies off to the neighbouring bush, where, by his war- 
bling strains, he expresses his gratitude for the liberty 
he has been allowed. He is found in most parts of 
Europe, but nowhere so commonly as in Great Britain. 
His bill is dusky ; his forehead, chin, throat, and breast 
are of a deep orange-colour, inclining to vermilion ; the 
back of his head, neck, back, and tail are of a pale olive- 
brown colour ; the wings are somewhat darker, the edges 
inclining to yellow ; the legs and feet are the colour of 
the bill. The female generally builds her nest in the 
crevice of some mossy bank, near places which human 
beings frequent, or in some part of a human dwelling. 
Robins have been known to build in a sawpit where 
men worked every day, and in various other equally 
extraordinary places. When the Crystal Palace at 
Sydenham was being fitted up, several Robins built their 
nests in holes of the large roots used to raise the flower 
beds within the building. So little fear did they exhibit 
that their bright eyes might be seen glancing from holes 
close to which men were passing every moment. The 
elegant poet of The Seasons gives us a very exact and 
animated description of this bird in the following lines : 
Half afraid, lie first 
Against the window beats : then, brisk alights 
On the warm hearth ; then, hopping on the floor, 
Eyes all the smiling family askance, 
And pecks, and starts, and wonders where he is, 
Till, more familiar grown, the table-crumbs 
Attract *his slender feet." 
An old Latin proverb tells us that two Robin Red- 
