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98 something else than letting it hang down decently. Lastly, they are all groundlings, collectors of crickets and beetles and other small hard-backed insects that run upon the face of the earth, but taking little interest in caterpillars, or flies of any kind, and seldom touching fruits. In all these respects they differ from the Thrushes.

I feel that the one which ought to head the list is the Indian Robin; but you must not let your thoughts run on the bird which is begging for crumbs at our windows in the old country. Mr. Phil Robinson, speaking of the difficulty of getting up anything like a Christmas feeling in this land of. regrets, complains that the very Robin, instead of wearing a red waistcoat, wears a red seat to its trousers. This is true if not expressed with prudery; but it is not the only difference between the two birds. The Indian Cock Robin (Thamnobia fulciata) is a jet-black bird, with the exception of the rusty patch above-mentioned and a narrow band of pure white across the wing, which scarcely appears except when it flies. Nevertheless it is by nature a Robin', making a friend of man, sitting on his house top, coming into his verandah, or even singing to him from his own window sill. You will not find it in orchards or shady gardens, for it has a prejudice against perching on a tree; but wherever there are old stone walls, humble human habitations, ruins, rocky wastes, or stony fields, there it is at home with its smoke-coloured mate, running a few steps on the ground, perching on some point of rock, tossing up its tail till it almost touches the back of its head, and throwing out snatches of cheery song. No more description is needed,