52 TURDID^E : THRUSHES. 



orchards, gardens, and fields ; it is sometimes placed 

 on rafters or under the eaves of houses, more rarely 

 in bushes or even on the ground. It is a bulky 

 structure, largely composed of mud, surrounded with 

 coarse and lined with fine vegetable fibre. The eggs 



are usually four 

 or five in num- 

 ber, plain green- 

 ish blue (though 

 occasionally 

 speckled), meas- 

 uring i.io to 1.25 

 in length, by 0.75 

 too.85inbreadth. 



FIG. 7. HEAD OF ROBIN. (Natural size.) J 



Two or three 



broods may be reared ; the first eggs being laid in 

 April, the next late in May, and sometimes another set 

 in July. The Robin is one of the most beneficial birds 

 to the agriculturist, destroying incalculable numbers 

 of noxious insects during the whole time that it is en- 

 gaged in rearing its young. The enormous amount 

 of insect food required and consumed by a nestful of 

 young Robins can hardly be realized by those who are 

 not familiar with the statistics which have been derived 

 from actual observation.* It is, therefore, entitled to 

 protection and encouragement, notwithstanding its in- 

 roads upon garden fruit at certain seasons. In the fall 

 it takes to the woods, and gathers in large flocks, pre- 

 paratory to the departure of most of the individuals 

 composing them. 



* See, for example, the observations of Lyle, in Am. Nat., xii, 1878, 

 p. 448; or of Forbes, in Trans. Illinois Hortic. Soc., xiii, 1879, p. 120. 



