636 THE BIRDS OF MAINE 



Bangor, and though lingerers stay longer, even through winter 

 very exceptionally, most of the species have left the lower 

 Penobscot Valley by October fifteenth, a few stragglers being 

 found through November. 



As a summer resident the Robin is a common bird in the 

 settled farming districts of Maine as well as in the towns and 

 cities, and along the natural waterways. It is rather rare in 

 the thick deep woods and seemingly entirely absent from some 

 wooded regions, and also somewhat less frequent on the wooded 

 islands of the coast. We may therefore say that in Maine it 

 is a bird that tends to love the neighborhood of settlements 

 and civilized communities, found in city gardens and parks, by 

 the country roadsides and brooksides, along the waterways 

 and in the small strips of woodland and groves surrounded by 

 cultivated lands. These are their summer resorts, but the 

 advent of fall brings them to resort to the woods in flocks, 

 and the few that winter as a rule prefer the deep, thick, 

 sheltered woods. 



In spring near Bangor the first day of their arrival from the 

 south only one or possibly two Robins are generally seen, often 

 first heard, uttering the characteristic "wicky, wicky, wicky " 

 or " chirp, chirp, chirpchirp " or perhaps perched high up in 

 the top of a leafless elm singing " cheer-up, cheer-up, cheer- 

 up." The next day generally more are seen and then they 

 come in numbers, appearing in loosely scattered flocks, flying 

 from top to top of the leafless trees, and the air soon is full of 

 their cries and song. Generally the " cheer-up " is the first 

 and only song they utter in the spring, and it is not until well 

 along in the latter part of the spring that they branch off into 

 the well known " rain song." If the lawns happen to be bare 

 of snow they descend and hunt for such early worms or insects 

 as may be available, but I sadly fear that many go hungry for 

 some days after their arrival, especially if a late flurry of snow 

 covers the ground for several days, but if they are fortunate 



