The Robins Have Come For A Visit

Folklore about Robins
An interesting belief about the robin is that if it finds a dead body, it will cover it with leaves or moss. This belief  led John Webster to write in his play, The White Devil (c.1608), the following lines.

Call for the robin redbreast and the wren,
Since o'er shady groves they hover,
And with leaves and flowers do cover
The friendless bodies of unburied men

Also in a Thomas Percy poem of 1765, describing the robin's role in his story's tragic ending:

Thus wandered these poor innocents,

Till death did end their grief;

In one another's arms they died,

As wanting due relief;

No burial this pretty pair

Of any man receives,

Till Robin Redbreast piously

Did cover them with leaves.