32 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1867. 



Mr. E. W. Samuels, in his recent elaborate compilation upon the Ornith- 

 ology of New England, constitutes himself the especial champion of the pseudo 

 Robin. He enlarges upon his consumption of angle-worms, and even enters 

 into a minute computation of the numbers that he can and will devour in a 

 state of confinement and deprivation of all other food. And he puts a 

 clincher upon his argument in behalf of his client, by the cool assertion that 

 the work of the Robin is not appreciated, because it is all done before people 

 are astir in the morning I How strange, that only the swift witnesses to the 

 good qualities of this bird should arise with the lark I 



Now, for a reply : — Your Secretary does not depend upon his individual 

 observation, direct and positive though that be. True — he has seen the 

 Robin " come down like the wolf on the fold," upon his choicest fruits, and 

 destroy in a few moments, the labor of months and years. He has beheld the 

 very finest specimens of the Strawberry and Raspberry, in the development and 

 exhibition of which he anticipated more pleasure than from their consumption, 

 disappear down the insatiate maw of these statutory pets. Quite recently, 

 before sunrise, when they ought to have been diligently occupied in Mr. 

 Samuels' works of matutinal usefulness, he has startled them, in the great 

 flocks into which they gather before migration, from his Bartlett Pears, where 

 they had been presenting their bills and impressing their private stamp 

 ■without Federal or proprietary license. But he prefers rather to rely upon the 

 evidence of his Excellency the Governor, the Commander-in-Chief of an Army 

 and Navy that yet was inadequate to save his pears. Upon the testimony of 

 Ex-Governor Lincoln, whose Strawberries were sedulously tended and, when 

 ripening, summarily stripped. Upon Messrs. John C. Ripley, George' Jaques, 

 0. B. Hadwen, and J. Henry Hill, gentlemen deservedly high in your confi- 

 dence and in that of the public, who all concur in the opinion that the Robin 

 is an incorrigible thief and an unmitigated nuisance. Gentlemen are they, 

 also, of refined sensibilities, to whom the song of birds is as joyous as to those 

 whose exquisite tenderness is wounded by the proposed outlawry of a single 

 variety of the feathered race. Members of this Society are constantly testing 

 new discoveries in Pomology, as much for the public benefit as for their private 

 enjoyment. Their labor will be utterly nugatory, if its fruit is to be subject to 

 legalized depredation. Your Secretary would advise that the Society address a 

 memorial to the General Court, asking for a repeal of all laws that protect the 

 American Robin ; or their amendment, so far at least, as to allow individuals 

 to shoot them upon their own premises. 



The Library is in its customary good condition. Too many of the books are 

 in cloth binding, a fact which should be considered in their use. It has not 

 been deemed advisable to incur much expense in re-binding, at present. Great 

 inconvenience is occasioned by the limited accommodations provided for the 

 volumes which are surely and not so very slowly increasing in number. Should 

 it be the policy of the Society to retain its Hall in its present location, the Li- 

 brarian would recommend the erection of cases upon the entire western side 



