a solitary robin. The flocks of summer birds have now entirely disappeared; only a few stragglers are seen, shy and solitary, as though they had been forgotten. We frequently throw out seeds and crumbs for the birds at this season; but it is seldom, indeed, one has the pleasure of seeing the little creatures eat them. As long as there are berries on the vines and bushes, and seeds on the flowers and weeds, they prefer to forage for themselves. They often alight near the birds-seed and bread thrown on the gravel, without touching a crumb; and the provision thrown out for them will lie unheeded until the snow falls upon it. Having made up their minds to leave us, they are not to be coaxed into staying by any friendly attentions. Perhaps our robin, in particular, may be more shy than that of Europe. We hear of the European red-breast being frequently fed upon crumbs about farm-houses in cold weather. Christiana, in the Pilgrim's Progress, thought they lived entirely on such food: “Then, as they were coming in from abroad, they espied a robin with a great spider in his mouth: so the Interpreter said, ‘Look here!’ So they looked, and Mercy wondered; but Christiana said, ‘What a disparagement it is to such a little pretty bird as the robin red-breast is! he being also a bird above many, that loveth to maintain a kind of sociableness with men. I had thought they had lived upon crumbs of bread, or upon other such harmless matter. I like him worse than I did.’ ”
We have no right to complain, however, if robin prefers spiders to bread, since we in our turn are capable of making a very good meal of robin himself; and so, after abusing him for neglecting the crumbs, we give a pretty anecdote, much to his credit; it is
