ca 
156 ORNITHOLOGY AND OOLOGY. 
of different scientific men, and my own, to show that the 
prejudice against the bird is unjust and unfounded. Mr. 
Trouvelot, of Medford, Mass., who is engaged in rearing 
silkworms, for the production of silk, is troubled by the 
Robin to a degree surpassing most other birds. He has a 
tract of about seven or eight acres enclosed, and mostly 
covered with netting. He is obliged, in self-defence, to kill 
the birds which penetrate into the enclosure and destroy the 
worms. Through the season, probably ten robins, for one 
of all others, thus molest him ; and, of scores of these birds 
which he has opened and examined, none had any fruit or 
berries in their stomachs,— nothing but insects. It is to 
be understood that this was not in a part of the summer 
when berries were unripe: on the contrary, it was all 
through the season. His land is surrounded with scrub- 
oaks and huckleberry-bushes. These latter were loaded 
with fruit, which was easier of access to the birds than the 
worms; but none were found in them. He says they came 
from all quarters to destroy his silkworms, and gave him 
more trouble than all the other birds together. He said 
that, in his opinion, if the birds were all killed off, vegeta- 
tion would be entirely destroyed. To test the destructive- 
ness of these marauders, as he regarded them, he placed on 
a small scrub-oak near his door two thousand of his silk- 
worms. (These, let me say, resemble, when small, the 
young caterpillar of the apple-tree moth.) In a very few 
days they were all eaten by Cat-birds and Robins, — birds 
closely allied, and of the same habits. This was in the 
berry season, when an abundance of this kind of food was 
easily accessible; but they preferred his worms. Why? 
Because the young of these, as well as those of most other 
birds, must be fed on animal food. EHarthworms assist in 
the regimen ; but how often can birds like the Robin, Cat- 
bird, Thrush, &c., get these? Any farmer knows, that, when 
the surface of the ground is dry, they go to the subsoil, out 
of the reach of birds; and it is not necessary here to say 
