WESTERN ROBIN 53 



A similar extension of the breeding range of the western robin has 

 taken place in California and other parts of the West and is apparently- 

 still continuing in the drier lowlands, where irrigation is reclaiming 

 arid lands and where more lawns are being developed and planted with 

 trees and shrubbery. 



Under primitive conditions, while the lowlands were too dry to suit 

 the robins, the summer haunts of the western robins were in the moun- 

 tains, from 5,000 feet up to 12,000 feet, even to timberline; and in 

 many of the wilder sections of the West such is still the case, especially 

 in the mountain ranges of California and Arizona. Grinnell and 

 Storer (1924) write: "Summer travellers in the Sierra Nevada recog- 

 nize the Western Robin at once as characteristic of the mountains, 

 inhabiting the small meadows which floor the openings in the conifer- 

 ous forests; people who live in the foothills and valleys of California 

 know the bird as a winter visitor to their orchards, fields, and gardens. 

 Upon the establishment of towns within either its winter or summer 

 range, the robin quickly becomes a dooryard bird, regardless of 

 whether the dooryards are those of permanent houses or those of the 

 ephemeral tent cities which, as in Yosemite Valley, grow and vanish 

 with the passage of each summer." Similar primitive conditions were 

 noted by Taylor and Shaw (1927) in Mount Rainier National Park, 

 where "one is likely to find robins on open grass-covered areas, whether 

 clearings in the thick timber, extensive alpine parks, or high ridges 

 nearly at timberline. The robin's preference, however, seems to be for 

 burns, where berry vines, decaying logs full of insects, and a wealth of 

 other food-furnishing material are generously abundant." 



Such were evidently the original breeding haunts of the western 

 robin, but civilization has been encouraging changes and extension of 

 range, which have been taking place even during the present century. 

 Dr. Tracy I. Storer (1926) has published an extensive paper on this 

 subject and states that up to 1915 "there were no known breeding 

 records for Marin County, the San Francisco peninsula, the adjacent 

 Bay region, or the Transition Zone of Monterey County. It seems 

 very unlikely that the presence of the Robin as a nesting species could 

 have escaped the attention of the numerous keen-eyed observers who 

 have worked these areas during the preceding three decades." 



He then goes on to cite a number of localities in California where the 

 robin had extended its breeding range during the previous ten years, 

 and explains some of the reasons for the changes. 



The general summer range of the Robin (as a species, as well as of the western 

 subspecies, propinquus) everywhere includes territory where there is moist grass- 

 land (or its equivalent) in which this "soft-billed" bird can find soft-bodied insect 

 larvae or earthworms as food for itself and young during nesting time. This 

 seems to be a prime requirement of the Robin. The original "natural" range of 

 the Western Robin in California included only those parts of the State where damp 



