BIRDS OF FIELD AND GARDEN. 289 



dug down to them. The hole was often two to three inches 

 deep, and they found the grubs unerringly. They might 

 not have been able to do this had the surface not been kept 

 well fined and mellow. 



The Robin revels in a well-cultivated garden. If he is not 

 molested, he will follow behind plow, hoe, or cultivator, and 

 pick up the grubs that are turned up, before they are able to 

 bury themselves in the soil. The Robins about our place 

 soon learned to pick up grubs and worms that were thrown 

 to them. The number that they find in a season is beyond 

 computation. They were so diligent in our gardens and 

 fields that the white grubs did no material injury. One 

 mother bird that was following me one morning picked up 

 three large grubs, one after another. She laid the first two 

 down on hard ground, secured the third, and then after two 

 or three futile attempts gathered them all in her beak and 

 flew away to her nest near by, where she fed them to her 

 eager young. The whole proceeding did not occupy over 

 five minutes. 



Wherever these grubs appear in such numbers as to de- 

 stroy the turf on lawns, the Robin is always the most effi- 

 cient agency for their destruction. Robins flock to such 

 places, and find more grubs than does any other bird. In 

 meadows remote from houses Crows may be equally efficient, 

 but usually they are too shy to approach very near occupied 

 dwellings. The efficiency of the Robin lies in its skill in 

 finding and digging out the grubs (an accomplishment in 

 which it appears to excel all other birds), and in its num- 

 bers ; for, except in villages and cities, where Sparrows are 

 more numerous, Robins are the most abundant birds. As 

 the season advances, Robins are often very destructive to 

 grasshoppers ; all orders of insects suffer from their attacks. 

 Even in June and July, when the Robin eats cultivated fruit, 

 insects comprise over forty per cent, of its food. 



The character of the food of nestling Robins is very im- 

 portant, for the Robin normally rears two or three broods 

 each year. Weed and Dearborn found that the largest 

 single element consumed by the young consisted of cut- 

 worms and related caterpillars, which formed twenty-seven 



