134 



THE OSPREY. 



below the horizon, they all rose in a body and 

 ascended into the air. until they were lost to 

 view. 



From these circumstances, and others cf less 

 importancs, I am led to the conclusion th;it the 

 Robin performs it« mij^-rations during the nii,'ht. 

 and at a great altitude. It also seems to be 

 gregarious at this time. A newspaper item, 

 from a correspondent at Stamford, Conn., says 

 that Robins first make their appearance at that 

 place March 22. Here they were first seen, 

 last spring. March 26. This gives them a daily 

 speed of sixty miles, supposing the observations 

 to have been correct. In South Carolina and 

 Florida the Robin is found at all seasons, but 

 it is none the less migratory. The birds which 

 spend the summer in those states retire to Cuba 

 for the winter, while their p'aces are filled by 

 northern birds. 



The Robin appears to mate for life, but unlike 

 the Phoebe, which also mates for life, if it loses 

 its partner it is not at all averse to taking 

 another. I remember that a cat caught one of 

 a pair of Robins that had a nest in my garden. 

 and whose habits I was studying. For two or 

 three days the remaining bird cared for its 

 young alone, and then appeared with another 

 partner, who faithfully performed the duties of 

 the lost parent. 



If undisturbed in its nesting, the Rijbin re- 

 turns each year to the same vicinity, and gen- 

 erally builds its nest a little removed from tlie 

 one of the previous year. Often it tears away 

 the old nest and builds again in the same loca- 

 tion. In a few instances it has been known to 

 use the same nest for several years in succes- 

 sion, but this is not its general custom. The 

 nest is built of bits of hay or straw cemented 

 with a large amount of mud, and is lined with 

 fine soft g-rass. Its dimensions vary somewhat, 

 but are usually about s-even inches in diameter 

 at the base, gradually tapering^ to six inches at 



the tc}p. It is about four inches in height with 

 an interior depth of three inches. Its interior 

 diameter is about five inches. These figures 

 are tak?n from an actual measurement of a 

 typical nest, but I have never found two nests 

 measuring the same in every particular. I 

 know of no bird that shows greater variety in 

 .selecting nesting-sites. I have found its ne.sts 

 in bushes not six inches from the g^round and 

 in the tops of trees eight)' feet high. Often 

 they builcl upon fence rails. Frequently they 

 build in bridges, and I once saw a ne.st in a rail- 

 road bridg-e through which twenty trains passed 

 overy day. A favorite nesting plac-^ is in some 

 old building; and there is scarcely a dilapidated 

 barn in this state that has not one or more 

 nests upon its beams. Sometimes the nests are 

 cunning'ly concealed, but generally they are 

 openly exposed, and verj- frequently in the most 

 conspicuous place possible. 



The eggs are four, rarely five, in number and 

 of a deep blue color. They are all alike, though 

 of slightly different shades, and vary but little 

 in size. Both birds assist in incubation, and 

 a!so in feedings and brooding the young-. They 

 rear but one brood in a season; but, if the first 

 ne.st be destroyed, or the eggs removed, they 

 select another site and try a second, and even a 

 third time. With the possible exception of the 

 Kingbird, there is no b'rd in Vermont more 

 vigorous in defending its iiest, or more noisy in 

 its protestations if disturbed. 



It is ojinivorous in its habits, and devours 

 grain, seed, berries, worms, and insects with 

 equal relish. The gardner calls it a blessing, 

 because it destroys thousands of injurious in- 

 .sects. The small fruit culturist calls it a pest, 

 liecau.se it eats his berries. Both, to a certain 

 extent, are rig^ht. A chapter on its food habits 

 would form an interesting study, and constitute 

 the biisis of a future article. 



BIRDS A.S PROGNOSTICATORS. 



By H. H. JOIIN.SON, Pittsfield, Me. 



Those of our forefathers who lived in the back- 

 woods had liule outside of their daily duties to 

 lake their attention. Therefore they noticed 

 more closely the workings of nature and na- 

 ture's laws. They paid more attention than we 

 of tod.iy to chance events. 



They associated these events (particularly 

 such as sickness, death, and the changes of the 

 weather and seasons) with the natural happen- 

 ings of the day. it was from birds more than 

 from anything else that these auguries were 

 drawn It has been so for ihousands of years. 

 The actions of birds were thought to foretell 

 nearly all the ordinary events of life. It is a 

 relic of superstition. It is a mistaken associa- 

 tion of ideas. Cause and effect were misap- 

 plied. It was thought that a thing that hap 

 pened aflt-y anotlier must have happened *(?- 

 cause of that other--/><).s/ hoL\ propter hoc. This 

 is well illustrated by Kipling in his Jungle 

 Hook. Buldeo the hunter tells his neighbors 

 the tiger that carried away the child is a ghost 

 tiger, the body of a tiger inhabited by the spirit 

 of Ran Dass the money lender. Ran Dass was 



lame, lie was lamed in the riot when his books 

 were burned. The tiger was lame. The un- 

 equal print of his pads showed it. Therefore it 

 is a ghost tiger. The tiger's body is inhabited 

 by the spirit of Ran Dass. In reality the tiger 

 was lame from birth. This was long before Ran 

 Dass was injured. 



The singing of a Whip-poorwill, on or near 

 one's house, was by many and is even now by 

 some thought to foretell sickness if not death 

 in the family. 



The early arrival of spring migrants is a 

 pretty sure sign of an early spring; so too, the 

 early and complele departure of the birds in the 

 fall is a forerunner of an early if not cold win- 

 ter. 1 think we are all familiar with the saying 

 about the goose's breast-bone, for how closely 

 have we watched for the breast-bone of the 

 Christmas goose, and when received have 

 deemed it a prize almost equal to the far famed 

 wish-bone: for the amount of whitness on the 

 bone told us of the amount of snow and hill- 

 sliding the coming winter. And with us here 

 the wild goose is one of the early spring mi- 



