42 LAND-BIRDS AND GAME-BIRDS 



storms of snow, when protection is so much needed. Though 

 I have seen companies of Robins in February, it is not usually 

 until the early part of March that they come from the South ; 

 on their arrival, collecting in flocks and feeding on barberries, 

 small fruits of the same kind, and such other suitable food as 

 they can find. They retire, at this season, a few minutes before 

 the hour of sunset, generally passing the night in spruces ; 

 and, in the early morning, arising before the sun, the} T gen- 

 erally betake themselves to the southern slope of some hill, 

 where the snow has melted, thus offering to them the comfort 

 of a little bare ground, and there they pass the day. 



It is very wonderful that birds employed in active exercise 

 throughout the day, perhaps a bright one, when the heat of the 

 sun is strong, can pass the night in sleep and inactivity, when 

 but little shielded from the bitterness of the weather in March, 

 that month, which in New England is with ghastly inappro- 

 priateness called the first month of spring. It is also wonder- 

 ful that, whereas in midwinter most birds sleep fourteen or fif- 

 teen hours out of twenty-four, and pass only nine or ten in ex- 

 ercise, in the latter part of June, when the longest days of the 

 year occur, they require little more than half that amount of 

 rest to counterbalance the fatigue of at least sixteen hours' 

 labor. I have known Robins to awake and to begin their daily 

 duties before half-past three o'clock in the morning, and to be 

 still moving about after eight in the evening ; at that season 

 of the year, moreover, when the male must provide for his 

 young as well .as for himself. In the case of many birds, 

 either the male or the female sits on the nest, whilst the other 

 forages, but I have known instances in which the male never 

 sat on his nest, so that all the active duties in the care of his 

 family devolved upon him. 



The Robins continue to come from the South until the first 

 of April, and during the greater part of that month are in- 

 clined to be gregarious, but they finally separate, and many 

 begin to build ; many waiting, however, until May, or even 

 June. As is well known, in the cultivated parts of the country 

 they do not often retire to the woods (except in winter), pre- 



