6 JVBSTS AND EGGS OF BIRDS. 



helpless charges, alternately, and almost incessantly, bringing 

 food to satisfy their rapacious appetites. A single anecdote 

 will illustrate the depth of this parent-love. A few years ago 

 a pair of robins built their nest on the beams of a shed within 

 sight of the study window of the Rev. S. A. L. Drew, at South 

 Royalton, Vermont. They laid their eggs, and in due time 

 young appeared, which grew until too large to remain in the 

 nest, when one or two got out upon the beam. Cats were con- 

 stantly on the watch, waiting until the fledglings should slip 

 off", and the parents were in great distress ; but they were by 

 no means idle, for at daylight on the succeeding morning, Mr. 

 Drew saw a second, (new) nest beside the old one, in which 

 were two of the young. Thus the old birds successfully met 

 the emergency, and reared their family in safety until able to 

 fly. 



Two, and in the case of old birds, often three broods are 

 brought out in a single season ; but the eggs of the last laying 

 are likely to be fewer and smaller than the previous clutches. 



An important part of the food of the young consists of grubs, 

 earthworms, ground-beetles, measuring-worms and the larvse 

 of various moths and butterflies which infest the garden, besides 

 various species of diptera, including the house and stable flies, 

 the mosquito, and many others ; add to these the fruits of sev- 

 eral varieties of cherry, the strawberry, raspberry, currant and 

 other berries. The insects are pi-eferred, however, and the ser- 

 vices of the robin, in destroying the injurious cut-worm alone, 

 are inestimable. The quantity required for the support of the 

 young in a nest is prodigious, and taxes the faithful parents to 

 the utmost to provide it. 



The Cape St. Lucas Robin (Var. confinis. No. la), is i"e- 

 garded as only a variety of the Eastern bird, from which its 

 general habits are not known to differ. 



