The Robin at Arm's Length 



The following table illustrates the relative activities of this 

 pair in caring for their young, the time of observation being ap- 

 proximately from nine o'clock until three in the afternoon. 



The nature of the food, which depends much on the local 

 supply or the condition of the market, consisted mainly of 

 grasshoppers and angleworms, to which we must add a few 

 insect larva?, beetles, locusts, and katydids, while the list of 

 fruits included blueberries most in favor, choke-cherries, and 

 raspberries. 



As to the sanitation of the nest, inspection, as we have seen, 

 follows each feeding. The nest was cleaned during the period 

 given in the table every fifteen minutes, and mostly by the 

 female, who devoured a part of the excreta at the nest and 

 carried the rest away. 



The Robin has been known to pass the winter in Nova 

 Scotia, where it feeds on wild dry fruits, like dogwood berries, 

 and at all intermediate points between its northern and southern 

 ranges, wherever the food supply is good. Thus in the cold 

 valleys of the White Mountains, where there is snow during the 

 greater part of the year, and where the mercury sometimes 

 freezes, flocks of Robins are said to spend the winter, feeding 

 on the wild berries which are cached above the snow. The 

 winter birds are probably in most cases migrants from farther 

 north. 



The food of the Robin consists, as we have seen, of small 

 animals, mainly insects and worms, and of wild fruits in about 

 equal quantity. It has been shown * that cultivated fruits are 



1 By Beal who found forty-two per cent, of animal matter in three 

 hundred and thirty stomachs of these birds. 



