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Mottled Grey Robin

Bogyn's Nastiness Rating: 59 (Horrifically Nasty)

The Mottled Grey Robin of Battal is a rare bird, prized for the quality of its milk, used to make Mottled Grey Robin Cheese. In the late summer, and winter, the the mottled grey robin sports the mottled grey feathers on its bloody red chest that give it its name. In the spring though, when the Robin must feed its young, it morphs into its war form, twelve feet tall, covered in razor sharp feathers, and emitting a cloud of noxious fumes with every tree shaking, ear drum splitting 'CHEEP' it emits.

The Mottled Gray Robin is rare for a number of reasons:

1. Theft of its milk leads to starving mottled grey robin chicks (which, while only one eight of a krone when hatched, grow to over seven feet tall when old enough to devour their first human heart).

2. The Mottled Grey Robin builds its nest at the top of the most epic trees, when it weighs less than a full grown peep. There it builds its nest from fragments of ribbon, flags, mud, and strands of war men's beards. When the chicks hatch, the mother morphs to her war form suddenly weighing more than ten warlords, and the nest will not survive if not on the strongest branch.

3. The feathers of the war form are 'really' sharp, and many a chick has been minced while cuddling under its mother for warmth.

4. Male chicks are not immune to the toxic clouds of their mothers, leading them to need to leave the nest before they have learned to fly, and often before they have even grown feathers. In their only known act of kindness, for reasons that are completely unknown, the War Men climb hundreds of feet in the air to gather male chicks, raising them in their beards until they are old enough to leave. Not normally icons of emotional balance, a war man suffering post departum depression is not to be trifled with.

Mottled Grey Robins exhibit sexual dimorphism, where the female is larger than the male, since the male doesn't morph into a war form. Male robins attract their mates by impressive displays of plumage, ariel displays which convince the female that the male will be capable of dodging her, and by building small winsocks of grass which it uses to know which direction the poisonous clouds will be blowing.

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