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NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



June 



THE horse's tail. 



Messrs. Editors : — Arc not dooking, prick- 

 ing and pullying the horse's tail among the dy- 

 ing barbarisms of the day? Are not wise far- 

 mers, bungling jockeys, and fastidious horse fan- 

 ciers, beginning to think a horse looks better for 

 having a tail ? Wonderful discovery all this, af- 

 ter all the persecutions practiced upon the horse. 

 Who has not been in a position to say that de- 

 cency forbids this mutilation ? Could the poor 

 animal remonstrate, he would say, my pride is 

 humbled, my loins are weakened, and robbed of 

 my most useful and becoming appendage, but to 

 the instrument and mallet I must submit. 



Why this passion for chopping of tails ? Will 

 you, Governor, answer this question ? P. 



Brooklyn, N. Y. 



Remarks. — We hate all barbarisms on humans 

 or anything less. Dr. Dadd can best reply, if he 

 Mill. _ 



drumhead savoy CABBAGE. 



Can you inform me where seed of the Drum- 

 head Savoy cabbage (the genuine article) can be 

 procured? F. Keith. 



No. Easton, Mass., April 26, 1858. 



Remarks. — We can only refer you to the 

 seedsmen at the agricultural warehouses. 



A PROLIFIC sow. 



I have a breeding sow which has dropped 

 eighty-six pigs at five litters as follows ; April 8, 

 1856, 17; September 4, 15; April 4, 1857, 16; 

 August 22, 16; April 16, 1858, 22; 64 of these 

 86 within the short term of 16 months and 14 

 days. C. P. Ward. 



Hast Poidtney, VL, April, 1858. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 OBNITHOIiOGY. 

 BY S. P. FOWLER. 



The Robin (Turdiis migratorious) is perhaps 

 more generally known in the United States than 

 any of our birds, and has been noticed by travel- 

 lers and naturalists, from the earliest discovery 

 of the country. Josselyn, in 1663, in his list of 

 singing birds, speaks of Thrushes with redbreasts, 

 which are very fat and good meat. Kalm, in his 

 travels in 1748, has given us a rude cut of the 

 Robin, or as he calls it. Red-breasted thrush, and 

 says it is very different from the Robin of Eng- 

 land. He says it sings melodiously, is not very 

 shy, and hops on the ground. It was noticed by 

 Dr. Latham, under the name of the Red-breasted 

 thrush in 1783 ; byCatesby,in his "Natural Histo- 

 ry" of Carolina, in 1748, where he calls it the Field- 

 fare ; by Jefferson and Bartram, in their catologues 

 of our birds, and by Pennant, in his "Arctic Zoolo- 

 gy", in 1785, where he says, at Moose Fort, these 

 birds build their nests, lay their eggs, and hatch 

 their young in fourteen days. Hearne, in his 

 journey to the Northern ocean, says of the Rob- 

 in, that it is called at Hudson's Bay the Red-bird, 

 and that they are not numerous. Dr. Richard- 

 son says the Robin inhabits every part of the fur 

 countries, as high as the 67th parallel, and that 



it comes in company with the Blue-birds and 

 Graklcsin spring, to the shores of the Great Bear 

 lake. Gosse says the Robin is found in New- 

 foundland, where it is very common, and is al- 

 ways called the Blackbird. 



The habits, instincts, and migrations of the 

 Robin are interesting, especially those connected 

 with the rearing of its young. It builds a very 

 substantial nest with great care and labor, erect- 

 ing its mud wall upon the true principles of ma- 

 sonry, so that it is capable of affording a safe and 

 comfortable domicile for its two or three broods 

 of young, during the season, and withstanding 

 even the storms of the following winter. 



How wonderful is the instinct that prompts 

 birds to build their nests in such a variety of 

 forms, and from such different materials. We 

 know not why a Robin should consider its nest 

 unfinished, until it is neatly plastered with mud, 

 and a wild Pigeon content itself with a nest con- 

 sisting of a slight scaffold of a few dry sticks, 

 carelessly placed upon a limb of a lofty oak, anct 

 feel secure in thus rearing its young. Our bird 

 under consideration, in some of its habits, may 

 be considered as truly American, in accomplish- 

 ing a manifest destiny by its constant increase, 

 and by its filling the whole country and much of 

 its adjoining territoi-y with its species, and also 

 from its constant residence in the Union, only 

 migrating from one part of the country to the 

 other to procure its food, or to avoid the inclem- 

 ency of the season. 



Many of our birds migrate upon the approach 

 of winter beyond the limits of the United States, 

 and are only summer residents, but the Robin 

 can be found in some localities even in Massa- 

 chusetts, during the whole season. Its maraud- 

 ing inroads upon our gardens, and the impudence 

 with which it partakes of our fruits, has given 

 the bird a bad reputation. This aggressive trait 

 of character which we discover in the Robin and 

 some other birds, they most probably acquired in 

 a considerable degree from ourselves, and may 

 fairly be considered an American propensity, 

 which we have fastened upon them. The Robin 

 is a true thrush, and consequently, its principal 

 food is fruit and small berries and these the wild 

 cherry trees and Vacciniums furnished, until man 

 bought all the fruit of the first mentioned he 

 could procure, to put into his rum, and the latter 

 into his puddings ! He having taken unto himself 

 all the indigenous fruits and berries, that are to 

 be found in the forests, swamps and fields, the 

 poor Robins and some other birds, have been 

 compelled by their honest fruit-loving appetites 

 given them by the great Giver of all gifts, to re- 

 sort to our gardens for a supply of their favorite 

 food, or starve ! Well might our birds say to 

 man, if they had the gift of speech, as they have 

 of song, let our indigenous berries, that nature 

 has given us, alone, before you complain of our 

 robbing your gardens of their cultivated fruits ! 



The form of the Robin is good and symmetri- 

 cal, but its plumage is not brilliant. Nature gives 

 form, and adapts the parts of birds to their pecu- 

 liar mode of obtaining a living, and in doing this, 

 frequently in our poor conceptions, destroys their 

 symmetry. But we overlook what we falsely sup- 

 pose a want of due proportions in the parts of 

 birds, by entertaining the notion l\vat fine feath- 

 ers will alone make fine birds — as, for instance, 



