44 LAND-BIRDS AND GAME-BIRDS 
this way, great benefits upon farmers and fruit-growers, for they 
are much more dependent upon the flesh of insects than upon 
other food. I think that there is no doubt that between fifty and 
a hundred Robins eat a million worms and injurious caterpillars, 
if not more, during their annual sojourn in the neighborhood of 
Boston. Professor Treadwell has recorded the instance of a 
young Robin in confinement, who ate in twelve hours 140 per cent. 
of his own weight, and consumed fourteen feet of earthworms. 
The Robins possess greater powers of flight than do the other 
thrushes, and can fly far and rapidly, often moving through the 
air at a considerable height above the ground, particularly when 
migrating. They have a habit of jerking their tail, which the 
‘* wood thrushes” do not possess, and which is particularly 
noticeable when they utter their notes of alarm. They are not 
brave, with individual exceptions, but are easily frightened, 
particularly when sitting on their nests, and yet they are by 
no means shy, and frequent familiarly the neighborhood of man. 
(d). The Robins have besides their song, and a very faint 
whistle like the Cedar-bird’s lisp, but one note, which is con- 
stantly varied, usually being in the winter, early spring, and fall, 
more dreary than in the summer, when it is sometimes merely 
a chirp, though at other times it is uttered in a tone of excite- 
ment or vehemence and rapidly repeated. The cry of the 
young is somewhat harsher than that of the mature birds, who 
are very pleasant singers, and often warble a cheerful, ener- 
getic song, consisting of a few monotonous notes, which are 
repeated with some little variation, chiefly in the morning and 
at dusk, in spring or summer. 
It is to be hoped that eventually the American people will 
become as fond of the American Robins, as the English are of 
their smaller ‘‘ Robin Red-breasts,” whose name our Pilgrim 
Fathers bestowed upon the Thrushes of this country, now so 
common and familiar to us. 
(G) navius. Varied Thrush. Oregon Robin. 
(One specimen of this bird, whose proper habitat is the 
Pacific Slope, has been taken at Ipswich, Mass., in December.) 
