ROBIN ROOSTS. 157 



total number twelve hundred, or thereabout, 

 on the assumption that my outlook had cov- 

 ered a quarter of the circuit. After the 

 flight ceased I went into the wood, and from 

 the commotion overhead it was impossible not 

 to believe that such a calculation must be 

 well within the truth. 



The next day was rainy, but on the even- 

 ing of the 28th I stood by the shore of the 

 pond, on the eastern side of the wood, and 

 made as accurate a count as possible of the 

 arrivals at that point. Unfortunately I was 

 too late; the robins were already coming. 

 But in fifty minutes, between 6.40 and 7.30, 

 I counted 1072 birds. They appeared singly 

 and in small flocks, and it was out of the 

 question for me to make sure of them all ; 

 while I was busy with a flock on the right, 

 there was no telling how many might be 

 passing in on the left. If my observations 

 comprehended a quarter of the circle, and 

 if the influx was equally great on the other 

 sides (an assumption afterward disproved), 

 then it was safe to set the whole number 

 of birds at five thousand or more. Of the 

 1072 actually seen, 797 came before the sun- 

 set gun was fired, a proportion somewhat 



