39G Proceedings of Indiana Academy of Science. 



Our January or February "tha\Y" seldom fails to bring back a few to us. 

 In early March, while snow still lingers in all protected places and flurries 

 of snow are still frequent. ( ne may sometimes see large numbers of robins 

 scattered over the fields and pastures picking up such bits of food as they 

 can find, the while uttering their call notes l»ut not yet their song. They 

 hop about over the ground and usually continut' feeding until late in the 

 evening when they take wing, resuming their northward flight, which 

 they continue through the night. Sometimes the flock may be made up 

 wholly or in part of birds that will remain in the vicinity to breed; if so, 

 they soon scatter more or less and ere long begin preparations for nest 

 building. 



In this part of Indiana oiie cf tlie fa\(irite places for robins" nests was 

 on rails of the old Vii-ginia rail fences. The nest was usually placed on the 

 third to fifth rail from the ground and just outside of where the rails 

 crossed. The rail above afforded protection from rain, the height from the 

 gi'ound was some protection against black-snakes and other ground inhab- 

 iting enemies, and. besides, the proximity to the crossing of the rails was 

 also a protection. In the books this nesting site is spoken of as unusual, 

 but in my boyhood experience it was the most common. At the beginning of 

 the breeding season they K-atter about over the farms and in the villages, 

 rarely entering heavily wooded areas except at the edges of fields or other 

 open places. The orchards, yards, shade trees along the village or town 

 streets, and the borders of the woods are their favorite nesting places. Be- 

 sides the rail fences, common no -ting sites are in the crotches of apple and 

 pear trees in the orchards: of maples, elms and other shade trees in the 

 yards and along the streets: and in the beeches, oaks, and cottonwoods 

 about the barnyards and at the edges of woodlands about the fields. The 

 nest might be placed only two ur three feet from the ground (as when the 

 Virginia rail fence was utilized), er six to 40 feet if placed in the crotch 

 or on a limb of some tree. 



Usually two, sometimes three, broods are reared each season, and the num- 

 ber of eggs in the set is four oi- five. I have frequently known the same old 

 nest, especially those placed en a fence rail, to be repaired and used two 

 or even three seasons. 



Albinism is of frequent occurrence among robins. In ^larch. 1908. my 

 niece. Miss Ava Evermann. saw an albino Robin about the Barker Stockton 

 home just south of Burlington. It stayed about several days then disap- 

 peared. In the fall it was observed again in the same locality. Apparently 

 it had gone farther north for the summer and returned in the fall with 

 other robins in their fall migration. In the fall of 1018. Miss Evermann 

 saw another partial albino Kobin at Kokomo. 



Miss Evermann has told me an interesting story about a Robin that saw 

 itsplf in a mirror. She says : 



"One of the most interesting observations I ever made concerning the 

 Robin was one winter when one came into our big back porch after some 

 dogwood iCornus florida) berries which I had hung above a mirror, the 

 fall before. The mirror rested on a little shelf and the bird came to the 

 shelf, saw himself in the glass, found by using his bill that he couldn't get 

 to the other bird that way. so. after seeming to study about it for a little 

 while, he hopped to the edge and looked behind the glass. This without 



