IDYLLS OF BIRD LIFE 
thoughtless fellow. I reported the affair to a game warden, and 
I asked him to keep a sharp lookout for further depredations. 
ifr vv 
One of our commonest, and one of the most delightful of 
our summer birds, is the robin. A pair of them built their nest, 
consisting of mud and sticks plastered together and lined with 
grass, in a big maple that partly shades the veranda which ex¬ 
tends about the front and two sides of our house. Early in 
\ \ „• ,i 'V', 1 i' ; 
April the glad “cheer up, dearie! cheer up, dearie, cheer up! 
/ \ V 4 
cheer up!” of the pair could be heard. In due time the 
mother bird began to nest and brooded faithfully over four 
pale blue eggs. The cheerful red-breasted mate supplied 
her with grubs and insects, and later on berries and such table 
scraps as I always made it my business to prepare for them. 
The birds were very tame, and they would hop about the place, 
picking up food here and there, and very often fly up within a 
few feet of the kitchen door, to take the food they found there. 
One day as I was sitting in the library reading of the trials 
and tribulations of Becky Sharp in Thackeray’s Vanity Fair, I 
heard the loud, excited “kip! kip! kip!” of my robin friends, as 
if they were calling for me. I went out to learn the cause of the 
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