"When I was a little girl, I used to call them my Quaker-birds, they
looked so neat and prim. In the summer you may find their nests in the
brush-heaps near the edge of the forest; they sing a soft, low song."

"Nurse, I heard a bird singing yesterday, when I was in the garden; a
little plain brown bird, nurse."

"It was a song-sparrow, Lady Mary. This cheerful little bird comes with
the snow-birds, often before the robin."

"Oh, nurse, the robin! I wish you would show me a darling robin
redbreast. I did not know they lived in Canada."

"The bird that we call the robin in this country, my dear, is not like
the little redbreast you have seen at home; our robin is twice as large;
though in shape resembling the European robin; I believe it is really a
kind of thrush. It migrates in the fall, and returns to us early in the
spring."

"What is migrating, nurse; is it the same as emigrating?"

"Yes, Lady Mary, for when a person leaves his native country, and goes to
live in another country, he is said to emigrate. This is the reason why
the English, Scotch, and Irish families who come to live in Canada are
called Emigrants."

"What colour are the Canadian robins, nurse?"

"The head is blackish, the back lead colour, and the breast is pale
orange; not so bright a red, however, as the real robin."