Seo. 11.] 



BIRDS. 



187 



Elateridas, the parents of the well-known wire-worms, so destructive to corn 

 and various other seeds when committed to the ground. 



The earth-worm I found to be a favorite food for tlie voung Lird, but 

 sparingly e:iiployed by the adult tor its own use. 



5. From the date of June 21, I began to lind strawberries, cherries, and 

 pulpy fruit generally, but in a majority of the examinations intermingled 

 with insects, which led me to conclude that they were not fond of an exclu- 

 sively vegetable diet, but rather adopted it as a dessert, ami from the ease 

 of procuring it, particularly during the enervating season of molting. At 

 this season of the year, I discovered a marked difterence in the food of tlie 

 birds killed near or in the village, and those killed in tlie country at a dis- 

 tance from gardens and fruit-trees, the latter having less stone fruit and more 

 insects in their gizzards, which led mo to conclude that the robin is not an 

 extensive forager. 



G. Tiie mixed diet of the robin seems to continue from the ripening of the 

 strawberries and clierries to October, tlie vegetable portion consisting, during 

 August and September, in great part of elderberries {Sambucus canadensis) 

 and pokebcrries {Phytolacca clecandra). 



7. During the month of October the vegetable diet is wholly discarded, 

 and its place supplied by grasshoppers and orthopterous insects generally. 



S. Early in November — the robin migrates southward — the few remaining 

 eking out a miserable existence, during liio winter months, on bayberries 

 {Myrica cerifiTa), privet hQwics {Ligustrujn vulgare), and juniper berries 

 iJunipcrus cmnmimis). " 



Ilere is something further upon the food of robins : In the report of the 

 proceedings of the Boston Society of Natural History in September, 1S5S, 

 we find an instructive paper from Prof. Treadwell, of Cambridge, giving a 

 detailed account of the feeding and growth of two American robins {Tardus 

 mignttonus, Linn.), during a period of 32 days, commencing from tlie 5th of 

 June. 



"When caught, the two wore quite young, their tail feathers being less 

 than an inch lung, and the weight of eacli about 25 pennyweights — less tliaii 

 half the weight of the full-grown bird. Both were plump and vigorous, and 

 bad evidently been very recently turned out of tlic nest. lie began feeding 

 them witli earth-worms, giving three to each bird that night ; the second 

 day, he gave tiiein ten worms each, which they ate ravenously ; thinking 

 this beyond what their parents could naturally supply them with, he limited 

 them to this allowance. On the third day, he gave them eight worms each 

 in the forenoon ; but in the afternoon, he found one becoming feeble, and it 

 soon lost its strength, refused food, and died. On opening it, he found the 

 crdp, gizzard, and intestines entirely empty, and concluded, therefore, that it 

 luid died from want of sullicieut food, the etfect of hunger being perhaps 

 increased by cold, as the thermometer was about 00°. Tiie other bird, still 

 vigorous, ho put in a warmer ])lace and increased its food, giving it the third 

 day 15 worms, on the fourth day 2-i, ou tho lifth 25, on the sixth 30, and ou 



