A Dish of Robins 101 



"Wherever the Robin breeds within the con- 

 fines of civilization, man is its friend, and a mu- 

 tual attachment has grown up that borders on 

 sentiment. The man extends his protection and 

 the bird rewards by making his home almost 

 under the same roof tree, displaying a confidence 

 in his human brother that is begotten by lack of 

 fear. 



"In the Robin's winter home in the southland, 

 all is different, for there no sentiment but that of 

 gastronomies is displayed; the bird is simply a 

 tender morsel to be made an integral part of a 

 stew or a pie. In Central Tennessee are large 

 tracts of cedars, the berries of which serve to 

 attract myriads of Robins in the winter. One 

 small hamlet in this district sends to market an- 

 nually enough Robins to return $500, at five cents 

 per dozen, equal to 120,000 birds. My inform- 

 ant naively says : 'They are easily caught at night 

 in the roost in young cedars; we go to the roost 

 with a torch and kill them with sticks, others climb 

 the trees and catch the Robins as they fly in/ 

 One of the officers of the Louisiana Audubon So- 

 ciety furnishes the following information regard- 

 ing Robin slaughter in his own state: 'They are 

 commonly killed for home consumption and for 

 marketing, a conservative estimate of the number 

 killed annually being from a quarter of a million 

 in ordinary years to a million when they are un- 



