42 LAND-BIRDS AND GAME-BIRDS 
storms#f snow, when protection is so much needed. Though 
I have seen companies of Robins in February, it is not usually 
until the early part of March that they come from the South; 
on their arrival, collecting in flocks and feeding on barberries, 
small fruits of the same kind, and such other suitable food as 
they can find. They retire, at this season, a few minutes before 
the hour of sunset, generally passing the night in spruces ; 
and, in the early morning, arising before the sun, they gen- 
erally betake themselves to the southern slope of some hill, 
where the snow has melted, thus offering to them the comfort 
of a little bare ground, and there they pass the day. 
It is very wonderful that birds employed in active exercise 
throughout the day, perhaps a bright one, when the heat of the 
sun is strong, can pass the night in sleep and inactivity, when 
but little shielded from the bitterness of the weather in March, 
that month, which in New England is with ghastly inappro- 
priateness called the first month of spring. It is also wonder- 
ful that, whereas in midwinter most birds sleep fourteen or fif- 
teen hours out of twenty-four, and pass only nine or ten in ex- 
ercise, in the latter part of June, when the longest days of the 
year occur, they require little more than half that amount of 
rest to counterbalance the fatigue of at least sixteen hours’ 
labor. I have known Robins to awake and to begin their daily 
duties before half-past three o’clock in the morning, and to be 
still moving about after eight in the evening; at that season 
of the year, moreover, when the male must provide for his 
young as well as for himself. In the case of many birds, 
either the male or the female sits on the nest, whilst the other 
forages, but I have known instances in which the male never 
sat on his nest, so that all the active duties in the care of his 
family devolved upon him. 
The Robins continue to come from the South until the first 
of April, and during the greater part of that month are in- 
clined to be gregarious, but they finally separate, and many 
begin to build; many waiting, however, until May, or even 
June. As is well known, in the cultivated parts of the country 
they do not often retire to the woods (except in winter), pre- 
