392 



MEMOIRS OF THE NUTTALL ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. 



a few persons this practice was approved, or at least tolerated, by the general 

 public, even in the heart of Cambridge, and the slaughtered birds — as I well 

 remember — made excellent pot pies. Later in the season they were killed in 

 still larger numbers, for food or sport, by gunners too inexperienced or unskil- 

 ful to often succeed in the pursuit of nobler game. In August the birds were 

 shot at their roosts in the Fresh Pond Swamps ; in early September, about rum 

 cherry trees growing along roadsides and near farmhouses ; during October and 

 November, in the hill pastures of Belmont and Arlington ; throughout the win- 

 ter, in the cedar groves and at the asparagus beds lying immediately to the 

 westward of Mount Auburn. But the killing of Robins for whatever purpose has 

 long since come to be generally condemned and to be sternly repressed. It is 

 not now often attempted, I believe, save by Italians with whom the officers of 

 the law find it difficult to deal. 



In the Cambridge Region, as elsewhere, the Robin is notorious for the wide 

 range of choice which it exercises in selecting a place for its nest. Early in the 

 season, it prefers to build in a pine, spruce or other evergreen, but after the 

 middle of May it is content with any kind of deciduous tree. The usual or 

 typical position of the nest is in a strong, upright fork or on a stout horizontal 

 branch. These rules are subject, however, to frequent exceptions. Indeed it is 

 not uncommon for birds to build in niches or on ledges furnished by the wood- 

 work of porches and piazzas ; on rough timbers in open sheds ; and on projec- 

 tions under wide eaves. I once saw a nest in Cambridge that quite filled a bird- 

 house which had lost its roof, and another in Lexington that rested on the hub 

 of a wheel attached to an old tip-cart, while a third, found in Waltham, was on 

 the gi'ound at the base of a tree, on a sloping, wooded bank by the roadside. 



The fact that Robins form roosts, at which they assemble every evening in 

 summer, in considerable numbers, to pass the night together, was overlooked 

 or ignored until 1890, since when it has been dealt with at much length by sev- 

 eral writers.' The roosting places are usually swampy or at least low-lying woods 

 composed of such deciduous trees as maples, oaks, chestnuts and birches, some- 

 times intermingled with white pines. The first broods of young Robins begin 

 to accompany the old males to the roosts early in June, but the birds do 

 not assemble in full numbers before the last of July or early in August when 

 the old females with their second broods are free to join the general throng. 

 After the middle of September the roosting flights begin to wane and by the 

 end of the first week of October they are practically ended. 



There have been several notewortlry Robin roosts in the Cambridge Region 

 within the period covered by my recollection. In 1867 and for a few years later 



' B. Torrey, Atlantic Monthly, LXVl, 1890, 492-498. W. Brewster, Auk, VII, 1S90, 360-373. 

 O. Widniann, Auk, XII, 1895, i-ii. 



