Robins, Squirrels, Rats, Pigs

U. S. newspaper readers were indignant last week at a cable dispatch from England. To the Manchester Guardian a correspondent had addressed himself as follows :

"The American robin redbreast (named mistakenly by the English settlers after the real robin in England) is a thrush. He is a large bird with a dull red breast and he struts across the lawns with the characteristic thrush walk. . . . The American squirrel ... is a large grey rat. . . ."

U. S. indignation soon found a spokesman in the New York Sun. Cried the Sun: ''Well, those English can pull our legs at peace conferences, do us in the eye in disarmament treaties and help Europe cheat us out of War Debt billions; they can call us dollar-chasers, jazz maniacs and Prohibition hypocrites, but they can't call our robin not a robin and our grey squirrel a rat. No, sir!"

The Sun called the American Museum of Natural History, learned that both U. S. & British squirrels belong to the Sciuridae family, but that whereas the grey U. S. squirrel is known scientifically as Schirus carolinensis, England's red squirrel is called by the unflattering name of Sciurns vulgaris. English robins, like U. S. robins, belong to the family of thrushes (Turdidae). "So," concluded the Sun, "American robins are American robins; English robins are English robins; squirrels are squirrels; rats are rats, and pigs is pigs, although English bacon is not American bacon."

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