THE LANDSWOMAN
December, 1918
New Eyes and New Ears
By Edith Lyttelton
II.
I
THE ROBIN.
AM going to turn both your new eyeR and yo•1r
new ears on to a very tamiliar little bird-t.h~
robin.
Some of you who QOme from towns may not have
seen a robin till this year, but you will know him
well now. Everybody knows rohin and robin knows
everybody. He is not a bit afraid ; at this moment
as I write out of doors a dear little fat tfllow hops
on to a t.able near me and runs about on thP bri"k
tloor, because he know> I often eat out here a.nd h·"
can find some little crumbs. He has a very bright,
steady eye-some peorle call it a tn1sting eye, but
I tnink it is mther de1i:1nt.
Rooin is a great fighter: he puffs out his red
feathP-rs and he will not allow any other bird to
come near him, not even another redbreast.
I
have watched robin guarding the entrance to the
place where I sit, for some spa.rrows and a wren or
two also thought it would be a good hunting ground.
But robin said 1t was his preserve, and he simply
drove everyone off, rushing at them, screaming to
them to go away, and giving a nasty peck at them
whenever he could.
There is a charming old rhyme which you can
hear in SusEex like this :-··
" Robins and wrens
.Are God Aimight,v 's friends,
.Martin8 and swallP-rs
Are God Alrni~hty's scholare."
Perhaps the robin is called God Alrnigbty"s
friend owing to the leg!lnd about him . It is said
that his breast is red becau,;e when our Lord Christ
hung upon the Cross, a robin perched beside him,
and some ot His blood fell upon the bird's breast.
This may bP- the reason, too, why he has a iways
been well treRted by man and why certain super·
stitions have grown up round him and he I ped to
guard him from harm. There is an old saying : -
·'If you go to catch a robin,
JI,Iind you eome not home a' sobbin.'"
And there is an awful name given to anyone who
is snspeeted of killing a robin: " Robin-anniejinny-fiit." It WOIJIs are white with red streaks, so
be careful if yo~" come across any like these that
you do noG touch t.hem.
Tlus is the time of yPar when the robin comes
quite close to houses and leavPs the woods. Do
you know that it is not every robin who stays in
Enghnd for the wintP-r ? Lots of them migrate, so I
think we owe some love and gratitude to those who
stay and gladrlen our eyes with thf'ir hopping and
fluttering, a.nd their lovely red brP-Mte, and our ears
with thmr delicious little song. Do listen for the
fine, clear. delicate notes, fu!I of a kind of ~hastened
gaiety in the winter.
The robin's ~ong is always one of t.he home sounds
wherever you may be in the world. I know a man
who heard it once in Greece and conld not help
crying, for he was carried back so quickly 1o his
home in the Hebrides.
Try and make friends with a robin if you can. A
few tiny little crumbs put out every day in the same
place will help, and if there is a hard frost, give
him a little saucer of warm water also. And do not
forget that" Robins and wrens are God Almighty's
friends " as wel l as yours.
-
Ancient Greeks Treadjng the Vines.
Dear and Incomparable
EAR and incomparable
Is that love to me
Flowing out of the woodlands,
Out of the sea ;
Out of the firmament breathing
Between pasture and sky,
For no reward is cherished here
To reckon by.
D
It is not of my earning,
Nor forfeit I can
This love that flows upon
The poverty of man,
Though faithless ~nd unkind
I sleep and forget,
This love that asks no wage of me
Waits my waking yet.
Of such is the love, dear,
That you fold me in,
It knows no governance
Of virtue or sin,
From nothing of my achieving
Shall it enrichment take,
And the glooms of my unwo rthiness
It will not forsake.
JOHN DRINKWATER.
1918.
265
J