THE AMERICAN ROBIN 331 



mother bird is gorging herself every hour of the day on 

 ripe red cherries, her young are given one only occasion- 

 ally. Evidently, the mother bird feels that worms and 

 bugs are better food for producing growth and feathers. 



When the young birds were able to fly, the parents did 

 not give them much of an education. When I think how 

 Sally the Wren would hunt worms and show them to her 

 babies, but would refuse to pick them up herself ; and when 

 I remember that the belted kingfisher would kill fish and 

 toss them into the water and make the young kingfisher 

 dive for them, and then gradually begin merely to stun 

 the fish, thus teaching her children how to catch a living, 

 I am convinced that the robin is a poor schoolmaster. She 

 is so concerned with the welfare of her children that she 

 continues to feed them for days and even weeks after they 

 are able to fly. I have seen young birds hopping about on 

 the ground picking up worms for themselves, but still the 

 over-fond parents were hard at work gathering food for 

 them and the greedy little fellows ate not only all they 

 themselves could find but all the parents would bring 

 them. 



As cold weather approaches and caterpillars are hard to 

 find, the robins, recognizing that food will soon be growing 

 scarce, fly away to the Southland. I was in Texas one 

 year when the robins came in by thousands and was very 

 much surprized and amused to see what gormands they 

 really are. I had always heard that when some people get 

 away from home they show poor manners. This certainly 

 is true of the robin. In Texas there are a great many 

 '^umbrella china'^ trees which bear large crops of berries 

 about the size of cherries. Most of the native birds do not 

 eat this fruit, but no sooner do the robins reach Texas 



