396 Proceedings of Indiana Academy of Science. 
Our January or February “thaw” seldom fails to bring back a few to us. 
In early March, while snow still lingers in all protected places and flurries 
of snow are still frequent, one may sometimes see large numbers of robins’ 
scattered over the fields and pastures picking up such bits of food as they 
ean find, the while uttering their call notes but not yet their song. They 
hop about over the ground and usually continue feeding until late in the 
evening when they take wing, resuming their northward flight, which 
they continue through the night. Sometimes the flock may be made up 
wholly or in part of birds that will remain in the vicinity to breed; if so, 
they soon scatter more or less and ere long begin preparations for nest 
building. 
In this part of Indiana one of the favorite places for robins’ nests was 
on rails of the old Virginia rail fences. The nest was usually placed on the 
third to fifth rail from the ground and just outside of where the rails 
crossed. The rail above afforded protection from rain, the height from the 
ground was some protection against black-snakes and other ground inhab- 
iting enemies, and. besides. the proximity to the crossing of the rails was 
also a protection. In the books this nesting site is spoken of as unusual, 
but in my boyhood experience it was the most common. At the beginning of 
the breeding season they scatter about over the farms and in the villages, 
rarely entering heavily wooded areas except at the edges of fields or other 
open places. The orchards. yards, shade trees along the village or town 
streets, and the borders of the woods are their favorite nesting places. Be- 
sides the rail fences. common nesting sites are in the crotches of apple and 
pear trees in the orchards: of maples, elms and other shade trees in the 
yards and along the streets: and in the beeches, oaks, and cottonwoods 
about the barnyards and at the edges of woodlands about the fields. The 
nest might be placed only two or three feet from the ground (as when the 
Virginia rail fence was utilized), or six to 40 feet if placed in the crotch 
or on a limb of some tree. 
Usually two, sometimes three, broods are reared each season, and the num- 
ber of eggs in the set is four or five. I have frequently known the same old 
nest, especially those placed on a fence rail. to be repaired and used two 
or even three seasons. 
Albinism is of frequent occurrence among robins. In March, 1908, my 
niece, Miss Ava Evermann. saw an albino Robin about the Barker Stockton 
home just south of Burlington. It stayed about several days then disap- 
peared. In the fall it was observed again in the same locality. Apparently 
it had gone farther north for the summer and returned in the fall with 
other robins in their fall migration. In the fall of 1918, Miss Evermann 
saw another partial albino Robin at Kokomo. 
Miss Evermann has told me an interesting story about a Robin that saw 
itself in a mirror. She says: 
“One of the most interesting observations I ever made concerning the 
Robin was one winter when one came into our big back porch after sume 
dogwood (Cornus florida) berries which I had hung above a mirror, the 
fall before. The mirror rested on a little shelf and the bird came to the 
shelf, saw himself in the glass. found by using his bill that he couldn't get 
to the other bird that way. so, after seeming to study about it for a little 
while, he hopped to the edge and looked behind the glass. This without 
