28 BULLETIN 196, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



semipalmated plovers as they feed on the wet sand of the seashore. 

 The robin thrusts his bill deep among the grass blades, prods about the 

 roots and, seizing a worm, leans backward, and bracing his feet against 

 the pull, carefully draws the worm from the ground. Then, looping it 

 up in his bill, he flies off to his nest or perhaps continues his search 

 for another worm. 



Robins are not always on the lookout for worms when they course 

 over the grass. Often, early in spring, before the worms are within 

 reach, and late in autumn, after they have retired deep under ground 

 for the winter, robins frequent grassy fields. Here they are seeking 

 smaller game which they see, apparently, above the ground. We 

 may watch them snatching up, over and over again, little bits of food, 

 tiny insects perhaps, which seem very numerous at these seasons 

 among the grass and weeds of the open fields. Sometimes, when the 

 grass is too long for the bird to run over it easily, he hops along with 

 his head high and his primaries lowered, almost sweeping the grass, 

 suggesting the Hylocichlae as they spring over the forest floor. 



Tilford Moore writes from St. Paul, Minn., that the robins there 

 seem to be fond of honeysuckle berries and feed them to their young. 

 They "seem to prefer the red berries of the pink honeysuckle to the 

 orange ones of the white honeysuckle. In fact, the yellow ones seem 

 rarely to be touched until all the red berries are gone." 



Behavior. — The robin impresses us as a bird of a nervous, highly 

 excitable character, ever on the point of flaring up to an excess of 

 emotion amounting almost to uncontrolled hysterics. For this reason 

 it is a relief to see him in the role described above, quietly feeding on 

 our lawn. The most frequent notes we hear the robin utter, perhaps, 

 are fretful expressions of uneasiness, complaint, or resentment at our 

 presence or at some other distraction, yet it is characteristic of him 

 to break out with a phrase or two of song even in the midst of com- 

 plaint. He seems always apprehensive, often standing alert and rest- 

 less, wing tips lowered or twitching, head high, and tail pumping, on 

 the watch for danger, and the least alarm upsets his equilibrium and 

 startles him into vociferous, unrestrained remonstrance. Not an 

 attractive nature, we think. How different the calm preoccupation 

 of the little brown creeper! 



Yet the robin has many good qualities: he is robust, confident, a 

 straightforward personality, and no more nervous, perhaps, than 

 many another American. Morning and evening he adds a charming 

 hour to the summer day when he and all his neighbors join in a chorus 

 of singing, in the twilight before the sun rises and after it sets. 



It is easy to recognize the robin on the wing, even at a distance. 

 He flies with a very straight back, like a runner with head thrown back, 

 and his breast appears puffed out, expanded, giving a curved outline 



