of the cabbage palmetto in Florida. But their whole nature seems to have suf- 

 fered change. No cheerful notes of song await you, no gathering of food from 

 the grass on the lawn, no drinking from the cup on the window sill, none of the 

 confiding intimacies so dear to their friends at the North. We see them in flocks, 

 wild and suspicious. Often they gather to feed on the great pine barrens far 

 from the abode of man. They grow fat from much eating, and are hunted for 

 the table. Recently I found strings of them in the markets of Raleigh, and was 

 told they were worth sixty cents a dozen, the highest price I had ever been asked 

 for them. 



That protection should be extended to the robin because of its economic value 

 as a destroyer of injurious insects many observers unite in stating, despite the ob- 

 jection sometimes raised to his fondness for small fruits. The United States 

 Department of Agriculture, which looks so carefully into various subjects of vital 

 importance to our country, sent Mr. W. L. McAtee, a brilliant naturalist, to Louis- 

 iana the past winter, and he made many observations on the feeding habits of 

 these birds. Under date of February 20, he reported : 



"I collected twelve robins near here yesterday, and got the following results 

 from an examination of their gizzards : Eight had eaten nothing but insects, the 

 other four had taken respectively 95, 80, 65 and per cent of insects and other 

 invertebrates. The insects eaten included grasshoppers, bugs, beetles, beetle 

 larvae, and caterpillars, including cut worms. Another day I collected three robins 

 which had eaten insects, including larvae of crane flies, which are sometimes 

 known as leather-jackets. The larvae feed on the roots of grasses, including 

 grain crops and other plants, and are sometimes quite injurious. Each of the 

 three birds had eaten one or more specimens of leaf beetle, a plant feeder, and 

 injurious. On a basis of the eighteen stomachs I have examined this month, I 

 consider the robin to be essentially an insectivorous bird in Louisiana in February. 

 I notice that great numbers of the robins feed in open grassy fields, where their 

 diet must consist largely of animal matter, as the birds do not eat weed seeds. 



The Crossbill {Loxia curvirostra minor). 

 By W. Leon Dawson 



Length, .66 inches. 



Range, northern North America, but sparingly in southeastern United States. 



There are several species of northern birds which behave as if they had been 

 moon-struck on some chilly arctic night and whose most ardent friends as a con- 

 sequence cannot deny that they are a little "queer" ; the red crossbills, for ex- 

 ample, — dear unsophisticated mortals, who are still following the Julian calen- 

 dar, and that only spasmodically. Normally confined to the coniferous timber of 

 the Canadian highlands, they nevertheless drift south in straggling flocks and 



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