THE AMERICAN ROBIN S27 



When we stopped for dinner and started toward the 

 bobsled, I was surprized to see a robin sitting on the hay 

 picking at the timothy heads. As I have said, the winter 

 had been exceptionally cold and there was no sign of spring 

 anywhere. My whole experience with robins had led me 

 to take it as a matter of course that they all went South 

 and stayed there till the snow melted off in the spring. 

 When we got closer we found a second robin in the hind 

 part of the sled. I promptly raised the question why the 

 robins had come back so early in the spring. To my sur- 

 prize, father told me they had not come back at all but 

 had remained all winter deep in the forest, and that they 

 had been feeding on hackberries, weed seeds, and other food 

 to be found there. Since then I have found other robins 

 in the dead of winter and as far north as the middle of the 

 State of Iowa. It seems that robins do not go south be- 

 cause they dread the cold weather but because the food 

 supply will become low and they must seek regions where 

 things are growing or starve. 



Over most of our country the American robin is one of 

 the best known and most loved birds. Here again we 

 have fallen into the habit of giving the name of an English 

 bird to one to which it does not belong. The EngHsh 

 robin has a red breast and is known all over the continent 

 as robin redbreast. Possibly because our robin has a dull 

 brick-colored breast it has received the same name, but 

 the American bird differs in many respects from the Eng- 

 lish robin redbreast. In fact, they do not belong to the 

 same sub-family. 



Our robins take delight in human companionship, and 

 often nest near houses. The most of the nests I found as 

 a boy were in our orchard; but one year a robin nested in 



