THE AMERICAN ROBIN 329 



started potting plants. It was only a few minutes before 

 worms were again sticking out their heads and crawling 

 out of the ground. It occurred to me that the jarring of 

 the soil might be painful to those angleworms, so I started 

 to experiment. Waiting until the worms had crawled 

 back into the earth, I took my trowel and tapped here and 

 there near the openings of several holes. I could never 

 tap more than a few times before the worms popped their 

 heads out, sometimes coming completely out and crawling 

 to a place that was less disturbed. About the time I be- 

 came really convinced that this jarring of the soil was ac- 

 tually painful to these worms and caused them to come to 

 the surface, I happened to look out through the glass and 

 saw a robin hopping up and down on the damp ground. 

 Presently he caught hold of an angleworm and began pull- 

 ing backward to get it out of the ground. The secret was 

 out ! The robin had known better than I that when angle- 

 worms are feeding near the surface, as they are early in the 

 morning or in wet times, jumping up and down on the 

 earth will cause them to stick out their heads, and then 

 they become an easy prey. I have watched this with field 

 glasses and in other ways a great many times since, and 

 have become convinced that there is some connection be- 

 tween the hopping of these birds and their feeding on 

 angleworms. 



But to return to my nest in the rose bush over the 

 porch. The birds began the nest by bringing fine straw, 

 grass, a few bits of twine string, some tough roots and a 

 few leaves, and weaving all into the form of a strong nest. 

 Then soft mud was brought, so soft that water would run 

 out of it, and was literally thrown into this mass of nest 

 material. When the entire nest was saturated with this 



