EASTERN ROBIN 21 



that "every time that I could determine the sex of the incubating 

 bird, it was the female. On one day of combined incubation and 

 brooding all of 13 consecutive sittings were made by that bird." 

 Ora W. Knight (1908), however, says that "the male also takes short 

 turns at incubating, more often helping in this work towards the 

 end of the incubation period." He remarks also: "I have known of 

 a nest being completed and the first egg laid in six days from the time 

 when it was commenced, while other nests have required even up to 

 twenty days from time of beginning to completion, but the longer 

 time required was due to a spell of prolonged rainy weather." 



Mr. Preble (MS.) states: "On a morning early in June, about 1886 

 at my boyhood home in Wilmington, Mass., I happened to see the 

 first few weed stalks deposited on the sloping branch of a medium- 

 sized white oak in our grove, about 8 feet from the ground. At 

 intervals through the day I observed the pair, busily engaged, and 

 taking a look at the site just before dark I was surprised to find the 

 nest virtually finished, the cup of mud fully formed but still wet. 

 The next morning when I went out about breakfast time the earth 

 cup was furnished with the usual lining of dry grass, and an egg had 

 been laid. The clutch was completed promptly and the brood 

 successfully raised." 



The nest is kept scrupulously clean while the nestlings are in it, 

 the parents seizing the fecal sacs as they are voided and frequently 

 swallowing them. The male parent takes practically full charge of 

 the fledglings, enabling his mate to prepare at once for another brood. 

 In a nest I had under observation, four fertilized eggs were laid in a 

 nest six days after the young of the first brood had left it. 



Thomas D. Burleigh (1931), speaking of the robin in Pennsylvania, 

 remarks: "Two and possibly three broods are reared each year," and 

 he gives the normal height of the nest above the ground as "varying 

 here from five to thirty feet." 



Mr. Preble (MS.) submits notes on nesting robins received from 

 W. A. Brown, of Aylesford, Nova Scotia, under date of February 16, 

 1948: "On my place last year, in an 8-inch-diameter maple, a pair of 

 robins built three nests. The male had a pure-white feather in 

 middle of upper tail coverts. The same year I had a robin's nest in 

 which two broods were raised. A neighbor had a blue spruce in 

 which, three years ago, a pair of robins raised three broods in one 

 nest. Last year I found a robin's nest on the ground, and two years 

 ago one on the ground." 



Robins show persistency in their nesting habits, often returning to 

 the same nest or situation year after year. The following quotations 

 illustrate this habit. Dr. Charles W. Townsend (1909) says: "In the 

 'Birds of Essex County,' page 313, I recorded a Robin's nest that was 



