58 BULLETIN 196, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



worm, as we see it cocking its head to one side, then taking a few steps 

 forward and extracting the unsuspecting worm from its burrow. 

 Probably all three senses are used at different times, but I should 

 think that eyesight might be the most important one. Claude T. 

 Barnes tells me that he watched a robin feeding on a lawn where there 

 was an incessant din of street cars and automobiles passing nearby, 

 and it seemed as if the bird could not possibly hear the slight noise 

 made by the worm. 



Other items of animal food have been reported. Mrs. Bailey (1902) 

 adds crickets and grasshoppers to the list of insects taken. Aretas A. 

 Saunders (1916) saw a robin eating butterflies, which it swallowed 

 wings and all; there were two species at a wet place, one yellow and 

 black and the other cream color and black; he watched it for some 

 time and "noticed that the yellow butterflies were the only ones eaten, 

 although the others outnumbered them almost three to one." Charles 

 W. Michael (1934) saw numbers of robins feeding on stranded fish 

 at Mirror Lake, Yosemite, and says: "I saw the long isolated arm of 

 the lake go dry, and I saw thousands of trout fry perish. * * * 

 Scattered along the margin of the brown pool, feeding on the mud flats 

 like a company of sandpipers, were at times as many as nineteen 

 robins. Occasionally a spotted robin would plunge in belly-deep to 

 capture a fish. The old birds were content to stand on the shore and 

 to pluck their fish when they came into shallow water. The fish taken 

 by the robins were about two inches long. These fish they would 

 toss out on the beach, mangle with their bill, beat on the ground, and 

 otherwise soften before attempting to swallow. One robin was seen 

 to capture and to consume four fish." 



Mr. Rathbun mentions in his notes that the western robin eats the 

 coddling moth and its larva, locusts, spiders, and snails. 



During fall and winter the greater part of the robin's food consists 

 of wild fruits and berries. Dawson (1923) writes: "The madrona 

 tree (Arbutus menziesii) often fruits in such abundance that hordes 

 of Robins can thrive upon it throughout the winter. Christmas 

 berries (Heteromeles arbutifolia) are another staple of winter fare, while 

 haws, service berries, cascara berries, and all available representatives 

 of the genera Rhus, Prunus, Cornus, Pyrus, Celtis, Juniperus, and a 

 dozen others, furnish their quota." On March 7, 1929, the camphor- 

 trees in front of my house in Pasadena were alive with robins feasting 

 on the profusion of black berries. 



Claude T. Barnes writes to me: "Last year I planted along my back 

 fence that vigorous climber known as the wild mockcucumber, or wild 

 balsamapple (Echinocystis lobata). Its dried leaves and egg-shaped, 

 prickly fruit still drape the fence in midwinter. Today (February 9, 

 1939), in the midst of one of the worst blizzards Salt Lake City has 



