Mrs. White on her Nest while Bob Whistles to her from the Wild Strawberry Patch. (_A. R. Dugmore_) 237 A Little Girl's Rare Pet. (_C. F. Hodge_) 242 The Drummer Drumming. (_C. F. Hodge_) 243 A Flock of Friendly Sandpipers and Turnstones in Wading. (_Herbert K. Job_) 258 {xvi} One Little Sandpiper. (_R. H. Beebe_) 259 The Coot. (_C. W. Beebe_) 259 The Little Green Heron, the Smallest and Most Abundant Member of his Tribe. (_W. P. Hopkins_) 260 Half-grown Little Green Herons on Dress Parade. (_John M. Schreck_) 261 Black-crowned Night Heron Rising from a Morass. (_Alfred J. Might_) 268 Canada Geese. (_Geo. D. Bartlett_) . . 269 The Feather-lined Nest of a Wild Duck 272 Sea Gulls in the Wake of a Garbage Scow Cleansing New York Harbour of Floating Refuse. 273 {3} CHAPTER I OUR ROBIN GOODFELLOW AND HIS RELATIONS: American Robin Bluebird Wood Thrush Wilson's Thrush {4} {5} THE AMERICAN ROBIN Called also: Red-breasted Thrush; Migratory Thrush; Robin Redbreast It is only when he is a baby that you could guess our robin is really a thrush, for then the dark speckles on his plump little yellowish-white breast are prominent thrush-like markings, which gradually fade, however, as he grows old enough to put on a brick-red vest like his father's. The European Cock Robin--a bird as familiar to you as our own, no doubt, because it was he who was killed by the Sparrow with the bow and arrow, you well remember, and it was he who covered the poor Babes in the Wood with leaves--is much smaller than our robin, even smaller than a sparrow, and he is not a thrush at all. But this hero of the story books has a red breast, and the English colonists, who settled this country, named our big, cheerful, lusty bird neighbour a robin, simply because his red breast reminded them of the wee little bird at home that they had loved when they were children.