6 Birds Every Child Should Know 
turquoise blue egg that his devoted mother has 
warmed into life, he usually finds three or four 
baby brothers and sisters huddled within the 
grassy cradle. In April, both parents worked 
hard to prepare this home for them. Having 
brought coarse grasses, roots, and a few leaves 
or weed stalks for the foundation, and pellets 
of mud in their bills for the inner walls (which 
they cleverly managed to smooth into a bowl 
shape without a mason’s trowel), and fine 
grasses for the lining of the nest, they saddled 
it on to the limb of an old apple tree. Robins 
prefer low-branching orchard or shade trees 
near our homes to the tall, straight shafts of 
the forest. Some have the courage to build 
among the vines or under the shelter of our 
piazzas. I know a pair of robins that reared a 
brood in a little clipped bay tree in a tub next 
to a front door, where people passed in and out 
continually. Doubtless very many birds would 
be glad of the shelter of our comfortable homes 
for theirs if they could only trust us. Is it not 
a shame that they cannot? Robins, especially, 
need a roof over their heads. When they fool- 
ishly saddle their nest on to an exposed limb 
of a tree, the first heavy rain is likely to soften 
the mud walls, and wash apart the heavy, bulky 
structure, when 
“Down tumble babies and cradle and all.” 
