Evening star., 1909-04-18
TRAITS OF ROBIN REOBREAST
FOR AGES HE HAS BEEN THE FA-
MILIAR or MAN.
No other Bird Has So Endeared
Himself to Humanity-Sylvan
Strain in His Character.
From the London Times.

Among the birds which attach them
selves to human households in England.
the nearest and most familiar place has
for ages been occupied by the redbreast.
or robin. No other bird has won a human
nickname which Is used almost univer-
sally in ordinary speech. We speak of
the jenny wren. the jackdaw. the mag
pie, and our ancestors once called the
sparrow Philip Sparrow, in days before
his multitudes had made him an object OF
invective rather than affection But robin
redbreast has long become 1.-The robin"
to Englishmen. and the name has been
transferred to the most home-loving and
ruddy breasted birds that English settlers
found on American and Australasian
shores. The robin has won this foremost
place among the most familiar birds by
marked and peculiar gifts: for in many
ways its natural habits and requirements
attach It less closely to man and his
haunts than those of several Of its rivals.
At nesting time. for example, when the
life of all small birds becomes busiest
and most noticeable. the house sparrow
and the swallow are never, except by the
rarest exception, to be found with their
homes far removed from the buildings of
men. which in one way or another pro-
vide them with some essential requisite.
But the robin may sometimes be found
USSllHS lHc ucplH OI WOOuS. dIlu IL lS
strange to find the birds which haunt
even the freside of men peopling such
lonely places, where no distant sound OF
farm dog or Growing cock Is borne on the
gentlest wind. Neither is 1t gregarious.
like the sparrow; and 1t does not win its
way to human notice by mere force of
numbers. Belonging to the same wood
land tribe as the nightingale and the
thrushes, 1t needs q soft garden diet of
worms and insects. and cannot wax fat,
Il q r .1nil1ad m the qpill-
ings from the corn bag and the city cab
stands
Likes the Woodlands.
This sylvan strain in its character
has also prevented it SO far from gain
ing the same thorough foothold In
London life as the wood-pigeon or the
carrier crow, both of which are far
wilder and warier birds in country life
The robin is found in parks and quieter
gardens, with the blackbird and the
thrush; but he thrives less well than
either as a resident through all the
year, probably because 1t Is not natu-
raj to him. as it Is to them, to build in
the higher trees and bushes, where
dogs and rats. The rat, like the spar
row. multiplies most where the human
population is dense; and how real
menace rats must necessarily pc 70
Hi IOWH DlTuS DIcSulHS WAluih iSoSh
of the ground can be seen any summer
afternoon by watching the pool in
Hyde Park below the Long Water
While the young mallard and waterhen
are splashing among the water lilies.
the rats stink from the cover Of one
large plant to another along the shore.
In such an inclosure. we'll sheltered
with underground though 1t is. small
bird like the robin would have little
chance of escape upon the nest.
Will Not Displace Sparrow.
It is to be feared that the robin will
never take the same place in town life
that the sparrow does. although, bird
for bird, his appreciation of human
benefits is far more conscious and di-
rect The sparrow is an indefatigable
empiric. with few fixed habits: and
among the thousand casual experiments
which it is perpetually making In new
conditions of life, 1t prospers by the
constant mimicry Of its brothers In the
same colony or flock. Very different
from the fnconsequent persistency OF
the gregarious sparrow is the confident
and calculating reliance of the individ-
ual robin on q definite group of hui
man characteristics. Most ancient and
ingrained Of these is the practice of
going a-digging. The robin is not one
OF the birds which habitually follow
the larger rocks and seagulls; the bare
wide fields are uncongenial to its wood
land habit and its dislike OF prolonged
flight. It loves the sheltered and well
planted garden. where peaceable men
turn up worms with a spade within
easy reach of convenient perch on
the apple tree, and with the shadow
and safety OF the shrubbery or leafy
hedgebank never far away. When the
digger pauses in his work. looking in
stinctiyely at the sky from long out
door habit. the robin shakes his wings:
and each time that the sleek brown
clod shows the writhing Of the i'm
bedded worm, down fits the robin from
the apple bough. and with one sharp
look at the digger from his large
thrush's eye. tugs out the muscular
coil, shakes 1t. bolts it. and fits back
again to his watchtower on the bough.
Many countrymen love the robins re-
sponsive boldness. as they appreciate
the same qualities in a child: they
are attracted. too. by the interest
which he takes in their labor. and are
hattered by the sense that the robin
is their own pet given by nature. as
animals of rarity and breeding are