10 MAY 1940, Page 17

Gallant Robins It would appear from more than one letter

which has reached me that observers wonder at the sight of a cock robin feeding the hen. Among my robin acquaintance was a pair that used to come regularly to a window for food. The hen was too timid to enter the room, but the cock was braver, and would come to the table while she clamoured on the window-sill, and was frequently fed by the emerging cock. The instinct to feed the hen, most patently seen in the domestic rooster, is common, though doubtless usually restricted to the dates when the hen is sitting. Some wild birds, notably the partridge, come at regular intervals to the nest, and compel the hen to leave eggs or young for an interval in which she can feed herself.