98 
SYLVIADiE. 
IA 7 CESSOR ES. 
DENT1R0STRES. 
SYLVIA DM. 
ROBIN REDBREAST. 
Erythaca rubecula. 
PLATE XXVIII. 
In the springtide and summer of the year, when his 
sweet and cheerful notes are superseded by the loud 
carols of a thousand minstrels from abroad, the Robin is 
busy making his nest and rearing his young ones, away in 
the shady woods and green lanes of the country; when, 
however, the sunny summertide is gone, and the silent 
groves have been decked in all the gorgeous colouring of 
autumn, when the leaves, so lately green, are strewed 
around us by the drifting winds of November, then it is 
that our constant and familiar friend comes near our 
dwelling, cheering us at the earliest dawn of morning with 
his plaintive music, and again at eve till the last depart¬ 
ing gleams of day have given place to the gloomy 
shadows of the night. 
If the weather remains mild and open, and worms are 
to be had, we see little of him except when he comes 
to chant his morning and evening greeting under our 
window. 
Should the severity of the frost, or the pitiless snow¬ 
storm deprive him of his daily food, we begin to feel an 
interest in his fate, and the beautiful language of Burns 
occurs to our recollection: — 
