JOSH BILLING'S PAPERS.

Tuapeka Times, Volume V, Issue 238, 22 August 1872, Page 9

JOSH BILLING'S PAPERS.

NATURAL HISTORY.

THE BOBBIN.

Tl c robin haz a red brest.

Tbey bay a plaintiff song, and sing az though they waz sorry for sum thing. They are natiffs ov the Northern States, but they go South to winter. They git their name for their grate ability for robin a cherry tree. They kan also rob a currunt bush fust rate, and are smart on a gooseberry. If a robin kant find ennything else tew eat, they aint too fastidious tew eat a ripe strawberry. They build their nests out of mud and straw, and lay four eggs that ,are Bpeckled. Four young robins in a nest, that are just hatched out. and still on .the half shell, are alwuz as reddy for dinner az a nuzeboy is. If ennybody goes near their nest, their mouths all fly open at once, "so that you kan see clear down to their palates. If it wasn't for the birds, I suppose, of course, we should all be eat up by the catepillers and snakes, but I have though ifc wouldn't be ennything more than common politeness for the robins tew let us have now and then just one of our own cherries, tew see how they had did taste. THE SWALLO. The swallo is a lively bird. Swallos make their appearance late in the Spring, and are alwuz in a twitter about something. They hay as much twitter as a boarding skule miss. f They kau fli as swift az an arror, and a great deal krookider. I have seen them skim a mill pond clos enuff to take the cream off from it. and even make the frogs dodge ; and not touch the water. When the swallos cums, Spring has cum sure, but there 12 an old proverb (ono of Soloinan'a I presume) which sez, "one swallo don't make a Spring." This may be so, but I have seen a spring (ov water) that would make a grate menny swallos. Swallos never have the dispepsy, they live upon nothing, and take a grate deal of exercise in the £open air. They don't' sifc up at nite burting, and never cheat a tailor out of his bill. ... They don't waste enny time in the morning making their toilet, but like the flowers, shake oph the dew from their beds, and are ready fur business. I kant think ov eanything Gf-od haz made more harmless than a swallo ; they are az freeaz the air they swim in ; they won't liv shut up in a cage longer than a trout will.