Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-04-03
BIRDS OF THE SPRING.
Robin and Bluebird Filling the Air
With Richest Melodies.
PRETTY LEGENDS ABOUT THEM.
Teh Larger Has Qualities That Fit Him
for q National Emblem.
APR0POS BITS FROM INDIAN LORE
WRITTEN FOR THE DISPATCH,

Robin and bluebird are the dearest har-
bingers of spring and the best loved Of
American birds. They come like embodi-
ments OF the first balmy Southern breezes, the
forerunners of spring delights and summer
pleasures Their presence in docryard and
air is prophecy that makes them doubly
welcome and wins for them place in tho
popular heart far above that of the CAV sum-
mer songsters. No sound of springtime is
so thrilling as tine first trill of the blue
bird as he futters through the air with
sheen on his wings like the deep blue of
summer skies, and movement that sug-
gests vivifed fragment of that far en-
pyrean gifted with the glories of song.
The bluebird is the poets ideal of spring,
his wing the cobalt blue of sky, his breast
the cinnamon of the brown earth, his plaint-
i've contralto the fit voice of springtime
longing. as he fits
| Shifting his light load of song
From post to post the cheerless fence along.
Simple, sweet and fresh, his trill sug-
gests banks of blue violets, and his undulat-
ing fight the freedom of wandering sum-
| mer winds
Solid merican Citizen.
The robin is different presence. Ethereal
the bluebird is; staid and practical this 9TH
er friend of the early spring. He is pre-em-
inentlY the thrifty, energetic, self-respect-
| ing American citizen, loving his home and
| enjoying the society of his kind. None of
| the bluebird's plaintiveness creeps into his
melodies. His notes ring out with cheery
| fullness and the wholesome rhythm of con-
tent, as befts one who duly appreciates the
beauty of the world. Even in the days of
| storm and distress, when ftful spring yields
for the time to wintry blasts he still bears
a cheerful mien.
His repertoire is not extensive, but the
ear never tires of it, and his mathis are
among the most charming of our birds
songs. Maurice Thompson has remarked:
II do not envy the man whose heart does
not sometimes quiver in unison with the
bird songs of spring" and surely the one
who can listen untouched to the robins in
spring welcome of the sun on an April
morning has lost the capacity for the purest
and sweetest pleasures of life and sis fit for
treason. stratagems, and spoils.''
Both robin and bluebird are greatly ex-
celled in musical capacity by later songsters.
All the other thrushes, to which family our
American robin belongs, far surpass it in
vocal range and richness. Those who have
trembled with delight at the wonderful
melodies OF the hermit thrush, ''the swamp
angel, as the Adirondack guides call it,
which Mr.. Burroughs pronounces ssthe finest
sound in nature" know the robins song is
weak and prosy beside it, and it would not
be difficult to select half a dozen birds of
midsummer with richer vocal endowments
than the bluebird
None So Close to Human Life.
But both robin and bluebird are familiars.
About our homes they take up their abode.
and their presence gives brightness and
cheer to everyday life. Even in crowded
cities they continue to live under our ewes.
reminder of the freedom of forest and
field lost long ago. What if that strange
recluse far in the forest has more brilliant
vocal powers than have they, it is the test
OF greatness not to weary and however much
the robins song echoes down from the top
most branches of the tree hard by, however
often the bluebird's trill floats out on the
nearby air, it is still the same sweet vel
come song, as full of cheer and fellowship
and love as the voices of dearest human
friends. 1t is this friendly spirit, this love
for man that has associated them so closely
with human life, and perhaps more than all
their other good qualities endears these
birds to every one.
Robin redbreast in Scotland is never mo-
Tested because drop OF Gods blood is upon
its breast. An English legend ascribes the
color to the piercing of the breast by thorn
from the crown of Christ, upon which q
voice from the clouds pronounced the bird
sacred and promised it many friends in
many lands. Another bit of folklore, upon
which Whittier has founded his poem, "The
Robin" is that the birds red breast was
scorched from the flames when in pity it
tried to bear drop of water to lost souls IN
torment. The Devonshire superstition,
which impresses upon every lad the cer-
tainty that all the crockery in the house
will be broken if he robs a robins nest, has
for its basis the same sense of sacredness. ;
Something of this regard may have arisen
from the robins mythical part in that
childhood tragedy, the "Babes in the
Woods, which is only Juvenile form of
the same myth to which Webster referred
in his "White Devil $50 years ago in the
lines:
Call for the robin redbreast and the wren.
Since DER shade groves they hover,
And with leaves and flowers do cover
The friendless bodies of unburied men.
These legends by right belong only to the
European robin, and only by a sort of pop
ular substitution can they be applied to the
American bird. OF the latter only one
story has come to my notice, and it, natur-
ally enough, is Indian one. Our robin
was the dearest bird OF the Narragansetts
their "mercy bird" Its esteem, the story
runs, dates from the early days of the tribe
when Narragansett maid OF rare grace
beauty and Wisdom was saved from death
by its interference. A jealous and dis
carded lover determined to avenge himself
for the maids preference of another more
kind and courtly prince to himself But as
he rushed upon her, knife IN hand, a mercy
bird flew so spitefully i'll his face that he
but scratched the girls arm, and she was en-
abled to escape. The would-be murderer
struck at the bird and stained its breast
with blood from her arm. He met his just