NORTHWESTERN ROBIN 51 



kept this up, then lifting up the battered remains in its bill it swallowed 

 them head first. It then remained rigid for a few seconds with the 

 tail of the mouse still protruding. Having apparently discovered that 

 it had not overdone it, it gave a flick with its bill, when the tail disap- 

 peared down its throat." He thought that his terrier might have 

 caused the death of the mouse, rather than the robin! 



Theed Pearse (MS.) adds fallen apples and pears, honeysuckle 

 berries, and ripe seeds of dogwood to the food of this robin on Van- 

 couver Island. 



Behavior. — Mr. Pearse has sent me the following account of a female 

 robin that he saw "anting" on October 5, 1942, at Courtenay, Van- 

 couver Island: It was "standing on top of a nest of red ants and kept 

 picking up something, presumably an ant; it placed it on a primary, 

 generally halfway up the feather, impressing the ant onto the feather 

 as though trying to make it stick there. Occasionally the ant would 

 be pushed into the feathers of the anal region. It was never seen to 

 place the ant under the wing. The actions of the bird suggested that 

 the ant was distasteful and the desire was to dispose of it as quickly as 

 possible. Much of the time the bird held its wings quite loose from 

 the body and, at times, was practically reclining on the surface of the 

 ants' nest. Sometimes it appeared as if the bird were ruffling its 

 feathers, as though bathing. It was watched for ten minutes until 

 disturbed, and all this time it was ' anting. ' The day was very dull after 

 a rain. An examination of the ant hill showed no disturbance, except 

 where pecked at. There were only a few ants working then; later it 

 became a seething mass, as the day became warmer, and probably 

 any bird would hesitate to venture there then." 



Fall. — In his notes from western Washington Mr. Rathbun says: 

 "In September, the first evidence of a tendency to gather together 

 may be seen, and during October flocks will be noted. Among the 

 later birds are individuals that may be regarded as caurinus, but there 

 is no difficulty in distinguishing propinquus. These flocks roam about 

 the country, evidently being first attracted to the localities that have 

 food of the nature of the fruit borne by trees and shrubs, such as the 

 mountain-ash, the dogwood, madrona, etc., these during the winter 

 months being stripped clean. In sections lacking such food, robins 

 will be missing to an extent; and, as the plants named vary in fruiting 

 each year, this is reflected in the numbers of the birds seen." 



Mr. Pearse tells me that, on Vancouver Island, there is an early 

 southward migration from early in July until the middle of August. 

 Late in December, there is, almost yearly, a flight of robins arriving 

 weeks after all the resident robins and the earlier migrants have moved 

 on; these are the birds that spend the winter. The regular migrants 

 stay as long as berries are abundant. On January 23, 1942, there was 



