-if)2 Brewster on Robin Roosts. 



r October 



a moment as if to renew old associations. The new roost was 

 many times more populous than the old, for it drew, in addition 

 to the whole Cambridge contingent, a great number of birds from 

 neighboring portions of Arlington and Belmont. In short, Rob- 

 ins poured into it nightly by thousands, and about equally on all 

 sides. It was resorted to regularly until 1S76 when the woods 

 were cut down. 



Neither note-book nor memory throws any light on where the 

 Cambridge Robins roosted during the next five seasons. I was 

 away from home much of the time, and lost all track of their 

 movements until the summer of 1SS1 when I observed them pass- 

 ing over my house in nearly the opposite direction to that which 

 they had taken in former years. Their roost proved to be within 

 a few hundred yards of the Cambridge Museum, in Norton's 

 Woods where it has continued ever since. I have no doubt it 

 was founded by the same Robins — or their descendants — which 

 in earlier days frequented first the Maple Swamp and later the 

 woods on Little River. 



There are equally good reasons for believing that a roost in the 

 valley of Beaver Brook on the dividing line between Belmont 

 and Waltham was also formed by some of the scattered legions of 

 the Little River roost from which it is a little less than three miles 

 distant. I discovered this Beaver Brook roost Aug. 25, 1SS4, 

 when it contained an imposing body of birds — "thousands," 

 according to the notes I made at the time. It has been occupied 

 regularly since 1SS4, and is at present the largest colony known 

 to exist anywhere near Cambridge. 



South of the Charles River, in Longvvood, about two and 

 one half miles from the Norton roost, I found a considerable 

 colony on the evening of Aug. 26, 1SS4. Their rendezvous 

 was of the usual character — dense, swampy woods of oak and red 

 maple. I did not again visit this place until Aug. 22, 1S90, when 

 I found that all the trees in the swamp had been killed by inunda- 

 tion. Nevertheless the Robins had not deserted the woods, but in 

 fully their former numbers were roosting in a cluster of tall red 

 maples, white oaks and chestnuts which, standing on a knoll 

 above the reach of the water, had escaped the fate of their fellows. 

 The entire area covered by the living trees was not over one 

 quarter of an acre. ' 



To go somewhat outside of the immediate neighborhood of 



