134 ROBIN. 



states, from New Hampshire to Carolina, particularly in the 

 neighbourhood of our towns; and from the circumstance of 

 their leaving, during that season, the country to the north-west 

 of the great range of the Alleghany, from Maryland northward, 

 it would appear that they not only migrate from north to south, 

 but from west to east, to avoid the deep snows that generally 

 prevail on these high regions for at last four months in the year. 

 The Robin builds a large nest, often on an apple tree, plas- 

 ters it in the inside with mud, and lines it with hay or fine grass. 

 The female lays five eggs of a beautiful sea green. Their princi- 

 pal food is berries, worms and caterpillars. Of the first he pre- 

 fers those of the sour gum (Nyssa sylvatica). So fond are 

 they of Gum berries, that wherever there is one of these trees 

 covered with fruit, and flocks of Robins in the neighbourhood, 

 the sportsman need only take his stand near it, load, take aim, 

 and fire; one flock succeeding another with little interruption, 

 almost the whole day; by this method prodigious slaughter has 

 been made among them with little fatigue. When berries fail 

 they disperse themselves over the fields, and along the fences, 

 in search of worms and other insects. Sometimes they will dis- 

 appear for a week or two, and return again in greater numbers 

 than before; at which time the cities pour out their sportsmen 

 by scores, and the markets are plentifully supplied with them 

 at a cheap rate. In January, 1807, two young men, in one ex- 

 cursion after them, shot thirty dozen. In the midst of such 

 devastation, which continued many weeks, and by accounts ex- 

 tended from Massachusetts to Maryland, some humane person 

 took advantage of a circumstance common to these birds in win- 

 ter, to stop the general slaughter. The fruit called poke-berries 

 (Phytolacca decandra, Linn.) is a favourite repast with the 

 Robin, after they are mellowed by the frost. The juice of the 

 berries is of a beautiful crimson, and they are eaten in such 

 quantities by these birds, that their whole stomachs are strongly 

 tinged with the same red colour. A paragraph appeared in the 

 public papers, intimating, that from the great quantities of these 

 "berries which the Robins had fed on, they had become un- 



