Fortunately, however, there is one thing which will forever keep him from forgetting his plainer kinsmen, and that is the fact that his children, until they are several months old, are made to wear the same spotted plumage which he once wore.
And it is this which shows Robin’s pride more than anything else. Should you approach his nest when it contains young, you will see how mortified he is, for he fears that you will take them for Wood-thrushes. And what a fuss he does make? He flies almost in our faces, as if to show us that they are his children. And how anxious his voice is as he calls to them to “Speak! speak!” Just as if young Robins could tell us that they are not Wood-thrushes!
THE OLDEST COLLEGES
THE University of Oxford, England, is said to have been founded by King Alfred in 872. The University of Paris was founded by King Philip II about 1200. The first college of the University of Cambridge was founded by Hugo, Bishop of Ely, in 1257. The first German university was founded at Prague in 1348. The University of Edinburgh was founded in 1582. Trinity College, Dublin, was incorporated by royal charter in 1591. Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass., was founded in 1636. Yale University was founded in 1700 at Saybrook, Conn., and removed to New Haven in 1716. William and Mary College was established in 1617, at Williamsburg, Va., and its charter was granted in 1693.
The first common schools established by legislation in America were in Massachusetts in 1645. The first town schools were opened at Hartford, Conn., prior to 1642.
The loftiest active volcano is Popocatapetl; it is 17,748 feet above sea level, and has a crater three miles in circumference and 1,000 feet deep.