1858. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



567 



Fur the New England Farmer. 

 ANOTHER PLEA FOR' THE KOBIN. 

 BY WILSON FLAGG. 



I have lately become informed of some new 

 facts in regard to the robin, which I think may be 

 worthy of another communication to the Farmer. 

 Before I had investigated the habits of this bird, 

 with particular reference to the services he ren- 

 ders to agriculture, I supposed he was only of sec- 

 ondary importance, compared with the blackbird 

 and others that possess the faculty of discover- 

 ing and seizing the grubs that lie concealed be- 

 neath the surface of the ground. Though the 

 robin does not possess this faculty, he is pre-em- 

 inently serviceable in other ways ; and the more 

 I have studied his habits the more I am con- 

 vinced of his usefulness. Indeed, I am now fully 

 persuaded that he is valuable beyond all other 

 species of birds, and that his services are abso- 

 lutely indispensable to the farmers of New Eng- 

 land. Some persons believe that the robin is 

 exclusively a frugiverous bird, and that for fruit 

 he will reject all other food that is within his 

 reach. Others believe that his diet consists about 

 etpially of fruits and angle-worms, but that he is 

 not a general consumer of insects. The truth is, 

 the robin is almost exclusively insectivorous, and 

 uses fruit as we do, only as a dessert, and not for 

 his subsistence, except in the winter, when his 

 insect food cannot be obtained. He is not om- 

 niverous, like the crow, the jay and the black- 

 bird. He rejects farinaceous food unless it is ar- 

 tificially prepared, derives almost his entire sup- 

 port from insects and grubs, and consumes, prob- 

 ably, a greater variety of species than any other 

 known bird. I am entirely at a loss to account 

 for this very prevalent and mistaken notion re- 

 specting the frugiverous habits of the robin. 



Early in ^lay my son caught and caged three 

 yoimg robins, and I encouraged him in the act, 

 that 1 might be enabled to study their habits of 

 feeding. He commenced by feeding them with 

 angle-v.orms and soaked bread, giving them the 

 latter very sparingly. They soon died, evidently 

 from an excess of the farinaceous part of their 

 diet. He then took three others from different 

 nests, and fed them more exclusively on worms, 

 with some fruit. Two of these also soon died, and 

 the remaining one appeared ill and drooping. I 

 suggested that the bird probably needed insects 

 as well as worms, wliich alone were not sufficient 

 to supply all the wants of the system, though he 

 had access to cherries and soaked bread, of which 

 he could eat whenever he wanted them. After 

 this he was supplied with all sorts of grubs and 

 insects which my son was able to capture. The 

 robin devoured these indiscriminately and with 

 great eagerness. He was never known to refuse 

 one of any description ; though bees and wasps 

 were not offered him, all kinds of beetles, moths, 

 bugs, grubs, vine worms, chrysalids and caterpil- 

 lars vv-hich were presented to him he devoured. 



After this improvement of his diet, the bird 

 soon recovered his health ; and the experiment 

 proved conclusively, that this variety of insect 

 food was necessary to the life of the bird, at least 

 while he was young. These insects were not put 

 into his mouth ; they were placed upon the floor 

 of his cage, and he picked them up, hilling them 

 in a loay that shoiced that he knew instindivehj 



hoicto manage them. I mark these words in ital- 

 ics because they contain an important fact. Ho 

 was particular in beating the vine worm consid- 

 erably before he swallowed it ; but he never re- 

 fused one or neglected to eat it. On one occa- 

 sion, having swallowed a hard beetle, and finding 

 it incomm-odious, he threw it out of his crop by 

 a voluntary effort, beat it awhile with his bill 

 against the floor, and then swallowed it again. 

 This fact also proved his instinctive knowledge 

 of the mode of proceeding in such emergencies. 



It is a fact worthy of notice, that the golden 

 robin, which has the reputation of performing 

 more service than the common robin, may, when 

 confined in a cage, be fed almost entirely on far- 

 inaceous food, without injury to his health. This 

 fact is good evidence that the common robin is 

 more entirely insectivorous than the golden rob- 

 in. The contrary is generally believed. 



The fondness of the robin for cherries and 

 other fruit is not peculiar to his species ; it is 

 equally remax'kable in almost all other insectiv- 

 orous birds. The birds that do not eat cherries 

 are generally of those species which are the least 

 valuable to agriculture, such as the graminivorous 

 birds, including most of the finches. And it is a 

 fact which ought to be more generally known, 

 that the most useful birds are such as are in one 

 sense the most mischievous : they all steal either 

 our fruit or our grain. Next to the robin, prob- 

 ably the most useful bird to agriculture is the 

 red-winged blackbird, called the "maize thief," 

 from his habit of stealing Indian corn, when it 

 is in the milk. But the blackbirds are not suffi- 

 ciently numerous or familiar in this part of the 

 country to render us a great deal of service. 



The truth is that nature does not afford us a 

 benefit without exacting pay for it. Hence if a 

 bird is particularly useful to our fields, he is sure 

 to devour some portion of their produce. We 

 must be content to pay them for their services, 

 as we pay a hired man, for clearing our trees of 

 borers and caterpillars. If it were possible to 

 obtain an exact estimate of the services per- 

 formed by the robin, we should be willing to pay 

 him more than the value of what he steals, rath- 

 er than dispense with his services. At present, 

 however, it must be confessed that the robin tax 

 falls chiefly upon those who raise cherries and 

 other summer fruits. This is an evil which must 

 be patiently endured for the common good. 

 There are onlj' two remedies of the evil to those 

 who happen to be the unfortunate owners of cher- 

 ry trees : the first is, to cut down all the trees on 

 one's ground, on the principle of cutting off one's 

 nose to spite his face ; the second is, to induce 

 all others to plant cherry trees, that the present 

 possessors may have company in their misery. 

 The extermination of the robins is out of the 

 question, as it would be hardly advisable to sac- 

 rifice the interests of all the staple products of 

 agriculture, to preserve a few bushels of cherries. 



As an improvement of the second remedy, we 

 should, as I have intimated in a former essay, en- 

 courage the growth of the high blueberries, on 

 the borders of all our pastures in all parts of the 

 country, especially in the vicinity of large towns. 

 I observed in the early part of the season, that 

 the cherry trees before my windows were filled 

 with robins, whose numbers diminished as the 

 fruit ripened and improved in quality. The ques- 



