96 BIRDS OF CALIFOENIA AFFECTING FEUIT INDUSTRY. 



As it was, Mr. Goodrich placed his loss on the olive crop through 

 the devastations of the robins at 25 percent of the whole, or about 

 $5,000, while his foreman, in an interview with the writer, estimated 

 the loss at 50 percent. He stated also that robins were so numerous 

 that he killed T in a tree at a single shot. 



The San Jose Mercury also states : 



A representative of the Mercury visited the El Quito olive orchard to see what 

 the facts were in this matter. He found a force of men piclving the fruit as 

 rapidly as possible, and he also saw thousands upon thousands of robins doing 

 the same thing. On his way out he occasionally saw a single bird on the fence 

 or in a prune tree, but when be reached El Quito the sky was strealced with 

 robins flitting about and having a gala time of it. Men were scattered about 

 through the orchard with guns, and every few minutes the report of one of 

 these would set the robins to flying, but in an instant they would settle down 

 again and resume their feast. 



Hon. Ellwood Cooper, of Santa Barbara, one of the largest olive 

 growers on the Pacific coast, in a letter dated Januarj^ 25, 1901, says: 



The robin is a terrible pest to olives. The birds do not always appear to come 

 to the coast. My first experience was some fifteen years ago. The olives were 

 late in ripening. I was as late as March making oil. The robins appeared to come 

 in by the thousands. My last orchard that year was about one-half mile in length. 

 The pickers were at one end. I had a man with a giui at the other, but they 

 would attack the middle, and when the gunner would reach them they would 

 fly to the end he left. This year they have been particularly bad. My boys 

 reported that the birds, mostly robins, picked more olives than they could. The 

 foreman of the pickers told me that he had knocked from a tree one-quarter of 

 a sack and went to dinner ; when he returned not an olive was on the ground. 

 I know that on the ground in one orchard where the rain had caused to fall as 

 many olives as would fill a bushel basket, in a week not one would be seen. The 

 robins do not seem to be able to pick the olives so rapidly from the trees, but 

 peck at those that are commencing to diy, knock them to the ground, then get 

 them. The birds at this writing are in all my orchards by the thousands. They 

 do not appear every year. It has been my theory that the native berries in the 

 Sierra some years are not in sufficient quantities for food. 



In the last sentence Mr. Cooper has probably suggested the true 

 cause of the trouble. There is a crop of olives every year and the 

 number of robins fluctuates little, but the}' rarely attack olives because 

 usually their native food abounds. AMiere this fails the hungry 

 birds shift about until they find a substitute. 



SUMMARY. 



With the exception of such sporadic cases as the above, the food 

 habits of the robin are for the most part of a beneficial, or at least 

 harmless, character. In the eastern part of the country very little 

 damage by the robin is reported, though it is one of the most abundant 

 species. This is j^robabh^ largely owing to the plentifulness of wild 

 fruits throughout the season. The trouble in California is that the 

 robins from an extensive region concentrate into a comparatively 



