330 GRAY LADY AND THE BIRDS 
mother bird is perhaps busy with some younger brothers 
and sisters ? 
“The father birds choose some tall trees with plenty 
of leaves, or if evergreens are at hand, they prefer them, 
and go there in parties of from half a dozen to a hundred 
every night, leaving the mother birds to tend the nest. 
When the first brood is able to fly, they go with papa to 
this roost, where his warning ‘Quick! Quick!’ tells them 
of dangers they do not yet understand. 
“Then, when the nesting is over, all the Robins unite 
in a flock, but wherever they go, or however far they range 
in the day, night sees them collected at some favourite 
roosting-place. I know about this habit very well, 
because ever since I can remember these spruces out- 
side the window have been used as roosts by many 
generations of Robins all through the season, except in 
the dead of winter, when they prefer to nestle into the 
heart of the young cedars. 
‘““Of course it is not to be denied that Robin likes berries 
and eats them without asking leave or waiting for sugar 
and cream, but we must think of this: the farmers 
are of more importance than any other class of people, 
for they give the world food. Therefore, the bird laws 
are made for their benefit, even when at first it might 
seem otherwise. 
“The Robin only troubles berries in June, July, and 
August, and grapes in September, while all the rest of 
the year he does valiant work as a gleaner of insects 
that cannot easily be destroyed by man, — many beetles 
that destroy foliage and their white grubs that eat the 
roots of hay, grass, and strawberry plants, grasshoppers, 
