EASTERN ROBIN 37 



Enemies. — The three following reports show that snakes are some- 

 times enemies of the robin: Ethel M. Spindler (1933) states that three 

 young robins were taken from a nest 13 feet from the ground and 

 swallowed by two blacksnakes; Laura Raymond Strickland (1934) 

 saw a blacksnake eat a robin's egg; and Harold B. Wood (1937) writes 

 of a robin strangled by a snake, Liopeltis vernalis. "The snake was 

 wound so tightly around the bird's neck, by four complete turns, 

 that it could not be shaken loose." 



Ruthven Deane (1878) quotes from a letter written by the grand- 

 daughter of Audubon describing a ''deadly combat" between a robin 

 and a mole in which, apparently, they killed each other. 



C. M. Arnold (1907), at a time when English sparrows were more 

 abundant than they are at present, calls attention to their habit of 

 following a robin about and snatching earthworms away from it. 



John Lewis Childs (1913) notes the destruction of robins by "the 

 most severe electric storm I have ever witnessed." It "annihilated 

 the Robins that live in the trees about my lawn. Thirty-six were 

 picked up the next morning on about an acre of ground, and others 

 in the near vicinity brought the total up to about fifty. The English 

 Sparrows were very abundant also but very few were killed ; the Star- 

 lings escaped uninjured as far as I can learn. * * * The birds 

 were evidently blown out of the trees where they were roosting and 

 perished from the awful wetting they were subjected to on the ground." 



Predatory hawks often capture robins. Walter Faxon, years ago, 

 was standing in his garden watching a robin, near at hand, running 

 over the grass. Suddenly, like a thunderbolt, a little sharp-shinned 

 hawk struck the robin, pinning it to the ground and covering it all 

 over with its open wings. Mr. Faxon frightened the hawk away, but 

 the robin was dead, killed in an instant, its life snuffed out by a bird 

 no larger than itself. 



The domestic cat is the most destructive enemy of the birds that 

 breed about our houses. It has been estimated that a cat will cap- 

 ture, on an average, 50 birds in a season, and the helpless young robins 

 provide a large part of the kill. 



Herbert Friedmann (1929) says of the robin in relation to the cow- 

 bird: "Probably an uncommon victim. It is hard to state definitely 

 the extent to which this bird is affected by the Cowbird because the 

 parasitic eggs are practically always thrown out. Half a dozen or 

 more records from New York, Connecticut, Iowa, North Dakota, and 

 Alberta have come to my notice." 



Harold S. Peters (1933 and 1936) reports the presence in the 

 plumage of the robin of 17 species of external parasites — lice 6, flies 4, 

 ticks 2, and mites 5. 



In former times a great number of robins were shot for food. Audu- 



