No. 4.] BIRDS ON THE FARM. ~ 137 



eaten b}^ the robin at 3 to 4 a.m. will probably have dis- 

 appeared from the stomach at G, by reason of the bird's 

 rapid digestion. INIost of the robins were shot on the 

 station grounds at a time when they were feeding largely 

 on the small fruits grown there in profusion. Naturally, 

 a larger proportion of cultivated fruit was found in the 

 'stomachs than Avould have been the case had a larger 

 number of the birds examined been shot in other localities 

 and at other times. This seems hardly fair to the species. 

 No stomachs of nestling robins were examined. This seems 

 a capital omission. In our investigations nestlings have 

 appeared to require a very large proportion of insect food, 

 and as they increase in size they require more food than 

 the old birds. A young robin has been known to eat 

 forty-one per cent more than its own weight each day. 



Mr. "^ilcox failed to find any grubs in the stomachs of 

 robins shot on ground recentl}?^ plowed, and he accounts for 

 this by the statement that the robin does not follow the 

 plow as closely as the crow blackbird, and that the grubs 

 soon hury themselves in the soil, "hence the failure of 

 the robin to find any." This is enth'ely contrary to our 

 experience here. We have found the robin to be a much 

 more efiective destroj^er of the white grub than the crow 

 blackbird, which will wait for the robin to find and dig up 

 grubs, and tlien quicklj^ snatch them away from its beak. 

 If we were to rely on stomach examinations only, the black- 

 bird mio'ht tret more credit for findino- o-rubs in the g-round 

 than he deserves. Our experience in Massachusetts is cor- 

 roborated by that of Dr. Roberts of Minneapolis, who finds 

 the robins there much more expert in digging out grubs 

 from lawns than the crow blackbird. 



jNlr. Wilcox says he has never seen the robin searching 

 for insect food except upon the ground. In Massachusetts, 

 however, the robin occasionally takes caterpillars from the 

 trees. It is quite probable that t^venty observers scattered 

 over the county in which j\Ir. Wilcox made this investiga- 

 tion would have made more or less contradictory reports. 

 It is unsafe to generalize too much from observations made 

 by one man in a single locality. My observations on the 



