LAND BIRDS. 723 



spend the winter in the southern half of the Lower Peninsula. Such 

 individuals commonly retire to swamps or evergreen thickets, or make 

 their homes in parks and private grounds, where good shelter and a fair 

 supply of food may be found, and undoubtedly the birds noted earliest 

 in spring are often these which have wintered in the vicinity, or possibly 

 a little farther south. On the first approach of warm weather they be- 

 come conspicuous and often begin to sing, so that reports of spring Robins 

 are frequent in February and occasionally in January. While such in- 

 stances are of most frequent occurrence in the southern half of the Lower 

 Peninsula they are by no means confined to that section, and we have 

 trustworthy accounts of the wintering of individual Robins in many of 

 the northern counties, even a few from the Upper Peninsula. As an 

 instance of this we may quote part of a letter dated March 5, 1909, from 

 Mr. E. E. Brewster, of Iron Mountain, Dickinson county. He says: 

 "I have been interested in watching a pair of robins, evidently young of 

 this year, which have made their home with us the past winter. When 

 my attention was first drawn to them there were three, but about Christmas 

 one disappeared. The other two, apparently male and female, judging 

 from the different coloration, were seen almost daily until February 1st 

 when the food supply failed in my immediate neighborhood, and they 

 were no longer regular visitants. One or both were seen at intervals, 

 however, until Fel^ruary 14. Later I saw two feeding on sumac berries 

 near the Pewabic Mine, about three-fourths of a mile east from my house. 

 The last I saw of either was February 23d, when I saw one in the sumac 

 bushes. This speaks pretty well for our winter climate when Robins 

 can winter here (45° 50' north). The early part of the winter they fed 

 on mountain ash berries, but Pine Grosbeaks and Bohemian Waxwings 

 finally cleared out the supply." 



During mild winters considerable numbers of robins sometimes remain 

 in the state, but ordinarily the van-guard of the migrating host reaches 

 southern Michigan between March 1st and 15th, although in some seasons 

 they are abundant in the latter half of February and numbers keep coming 

 from tlie south until the first of April. Even in the Upper Peninsula 

 Robins appear in considerable numbers early in April, often several weeks 

 before the ground is free from snow. It is a matter of common remark 

 that they become much more abundant with the clearing and settling 

 of a region, yet the species is by no means unknown in the wildest parts 

 of the state, and in open grounds, for example, the pine barrens in the 

 northern half of the Lower Peninsula, or the bare spaces left by forest 

 fii'cs, Robins are almost if not quite as plentiful during the summer as in 

 the more thickly settled regions to the south. During migration the}' 

 travel in flocks of considei'able size, and they often pass the winter in such 

 companies. The southward migration ])egins in September, but the 

 greater number linger until Oct<)l)er, and lai'ge (locks may be seen every 

 year until late in November. 



Nesting begins very early, always in April in the southern part of the 

 state, and occasionally during the last week in March. In the vicinity 

 of Lansing, Ingham county, the first nests with eggs nuiy usually be found 

 about the middle of A])ril, and the first voung leave the nests about the 

 middle of May (May 14, 1901, May 15, 1897).' A second brood is almost 

 invariably reared, the young leaving the nest al)out the first of July, but 

 nests with eggs ai-e of (en found late in July, or even in August, iiidicatiug 

 (liinl broods, in I9()() n biMod of young lef(. a. nest on (he ('olloge cninpus. 



