158 FAMILIAR FEATURES OF THE ROADSIDE. 



past ornithologists have delighted in. But I will 

 only repeat one marvelous and truthful account of 

 the bird's feeding propensity. Prof. Treadwell says 

 that from fifty to one hundred robins will eat a mil- 

 lion worms and caterpillars in a season, and that a 

 young one will eat in twelve hours a hundred and 

 forty per cent of its own weight, and devour four- 

 teen feet of earthworms ! Now, if this wonderful 

 eater would only concentrate his powers on the dread- 

 ful gypsy moth, what a blessing it would be to our 

 elm trees ! But robin eats other things as well, 

 among which are barberries, berries of the Phyto- 

 lacca decandra, those of the poison ivy, wild black 

 cherries, and black alder berries. He also relishes 

 cutworms, a fact which I recently discovered to my 

 infinite satisfaction. The interesting way the robin 

 carries himself on the lawn must be noticeable to the 

 most casual observer. He stands erect and motion- 

 less for two seconds or so, then darts forward at a 

 rapid run, and pounces upon a bit of turf in which he 

 plunges his bill in an agitated kind of a way ; up he 

 bobs again serenely with, maybe, a fat angleworm 

 hanging out of his mouth, then da capo! If we 

 disturb him he utters a " quirp-yip-yip -yip-yap " and 

 flies to a neighboring tree. 



A not very distant relative of the robin, but a 

 woodland singer nearer related to the catbird, is the 



