Pea eB. ONG Bis Balen OMT 
Following the lameness, our pet was overtaken with asthma. This 
may have been due to the unnatural living in-doors. The attack was 
most severe and many times I felt that he would not survive. But when 
the cooler days came, he grew better rapidly. Birds have the good 
instinct to refrain from eating food during such a time, but drink water 
continually. 
This is what our bird did, following us to the sink whenever he 
heard the water running, though a dish of water was always where he 
could get it. In living with this robin for eight months, I have discov- 
ered that they simply cannot resist running water. A rain is her greatest 
delight and a bath in a nice big mud puddle is a thing which Bobby en- 
joys more than in a clean dish. 
For food we found that angleworms, mother Nature’s diet, varied 
with bits of green lettuce, bread crust and coarse sand, were sufficient. 
This was arrived at after we failed in two other food combinations which 
if persisted in would, I feel sure, have cost Bobby his life. 
About this time it became apparent that the season was getting to 
the place where our pet must be allowed to go out into the trees, to be- 
come acquainted with his kind, so that he might go South with them. 
He now boasted two straight legs, and a goodly covering of warm feath- 
ers to keep him comfortable. 
Before this was done we decided to have a moving picture reel made 
of him to be used in educational work. A man was procured for this work 
and several hundred feet of film were made. 
Now came the day when Bobby could go free. All of the neighbors 
came out to watch him. It was a great surprise to see him unwilling to 
leave my hand for a long time. Finally, he saw an insect in the grass 
and flew down to get it. After half an hour out of doors he flew onto my 
shoulder as I came through the screen, and we considered that the first 
lesson. 
Other lessons followed, covering many days. He finally reached the 
place where he would fly up onto an old barn, circle around in the trees 
and play for a long time in the garden, but always he would come back 
in the evening to be let into the porch to sleep in the rafters. 
Finally, one day, I let him out at g o’clock in the morning and went 
away, returning at 6 p. mM. It was almost dark, but there, at the side of 
the screen door, sat Bobby on a little old clothes rack, which I had put 
out for him to fly onto, thereby keeping him away from the cats until he 
should learn to be more at home in the big out-of-doors. 
I was so glad to see him, though I did not expect to, that I just 
gathered him up and kissed him and took him in for the night. 
Each morning he was let out and each day he returned, until 
I noticed one evening that he had found a group of four robins with 
which he was flying around in the tree tops. This was his first bird 
friendship. 
