724 MICHIGAN BIRD LIFE. 



Ingham county on August 7, and man}^ nests still had young in them 

 during the last week in July. Since the nests are almost always con- 

 spicuous and are frequently robbed by Blue Jays, Crows and human 

 enemies, the birds are often compelled to make several attempts before 

 a single brood is reared, and this postponement of the normal second 

 brood undoubtedly accounts in most cases for these late nests. 



The nest is built largely of grass, roots and mud, but an immense variety 

 of substances may be used, and materials of all sorts are occasionally 

 found in the same nest. Ordinarily, however, few twigs are used, and 

 the nest is almost invariably well Hned with fine grasses, which completely 

 cover the mud which forms so large a part of the structure. Normally nests 

 are placed in trees at heights varying from three or four feet to fifty or 

 sixty feet from the ground, but they are frequently placed upon buildings, 

 bridges, fence-posts, rails, as Avell as in sheds, barns, outbuildings, and 

 occasionally on ledges of rocks or even on roots or stones jutting out of 

 banks of sand or clay. More rarely nests are found on brush heaps, or 

 low stones in open fields or along the borders of woods, and instances are 

 recorded in which the nest has been placed directly upon the ground. 

 The eggs vary in number from three to five, the commoner number being 

 four, and they are of the well known "robin's-egg-blue," without spots, 

 and average 1.15 by .78 inches. 



Before the young of the last brood are out of the nest, in fact, usually 

 before the first of August, Robins begin to congregate in large flocks, 

 and these commonly select some safe place in which they roost regularly 

 at night until their departure for the south. Such roosts have not been 

 commonly noted in Michigan, but in other states they have frequently 

 been described and the place selected may be a group of evergreens, a 

 dense bed of reeds in a marsh, or more commonly the thick growth of 

 small willows or poplars in low ground. Two roosts of the latter character 

 have been noted for the past ten years within a couple of miles of the 

 Agricultural College in Ingham county. In all cases the places selected 

 were dense growths of willows and poplars which had sprung up in a marsh 

 which had been burned a year or two previously. Here the Robins gather 

 to the number of several thousand each evening from early August \mtil 

 after the first of November, beginning to congregate about an hour before 

 sunset, but a few birds arriving even after it is too dark to count them. 

 They come singly or in scattered flocks, rarely more than forty or fifty 

 at a time, but from all directions and evidently often from considerable 

 distances. Blackbirds, grackles, and chewinks also frequent the same 

 roost, but in smaller numbers than the Robins. During the day these 

 Robins scatter over a wide area, but are commonly abundant on the 

 college campus during most of the day, and particulai'ly during llie latter 

 part of the afternoon. 



The song of the Robin is too well known to need description, It is 

 perhaps suflficient to say that there is very great variation in the song, 

 not only with season, but with the individual, some birds having sweeter 

 voices and more extended songs than others. The birds begin to sing 

 very early in the morning, often before the first streak of dawn is visible 

 to the human eye (in June between 3 and 3:30 a. m.), and after the first 

 bird begins it is usually only a few moments before hundreds are singing. 

 Singing continues all through the nest-building period, at least until the 

 very last of July, after which there is a silent interval of a month or more 

 and singing is again resumed in September and October, although by 



