Canadian Forestry Journal, April, 1918 



1625 



is a trellis in the garden on which 

 a rambler rose-bush or honeysuckle 

 climbs, one of these sheltered shelves 

 set at the top of it forms an ad- 

 mirable site for a robin's nest. One 

 can assist also by putting out nesting 

 material. In the case of the robin 

 the first requisite is mud — good, 

 plain, old-fashioned, black sticky 

 mud, for the robin makes the founda- 

 tion of his nest invariably of this. 

 In sandy countries and dry weather 

 the birds often have considerable 

 difTiculty in getting mud for their 

 foundation. In one of her books 

 Olive Thorne Miller tells of a robin 

 that wet his feathers, then rolled 

 in the dust and went to the nesting 

 site, w here he picked the resultant mud 

 from his plumage and used it for 

 the foundation of his nest. 



Most of us nowadays have a 

 bird bath in the yard and it is 

 an easy thing to put a dish of clay 

 or loamy soil beside this and moisten 

 it to the right consistency. The 

 robin will come and take it by the 

 mouthful — poor chap, he has no 

 other means of getting it— and begin 

 the nest, perhaps on the porch 

 but more likely on the near-by 

 shade tree. Usually the mud is 

 built up like a shallow cup and then 

 soft grasses — dried grasses of the 

 previous year's growth — are embed- 

 ded in it and skilfully built around 

 until the completed structure is mud 

 below but softly lined and built 

 up with these grasses. From that 

 time until the eggs are hatched 

 the less human oversight and in- 

 terference the better, although the 

 brooding mother bird will be very 

 fearless as the process of incubation 

 continues, but after the young are 

 hatched out a gentle friendliness 

 wisely offered will be well received 

 and appreciated. 



The task of feeding a nestful of 

 young robins is a great one. Every- 

 one of them will eat at least its own 

 weight in insect food daily. Earth- 

 worms, rolled in grit, are well liked 

 by the youngsters. Cutworms, 

 inchworms, mealworms — almost any 

 soft-bodied, non-hairy caterpillars 

 may be given freely. Nor need 

 one have any fear that the family 



will be pauperized by any such 

 charity. This feeding will help the 

 youngsters to grow up with very 

 friendly feelings toward the human 

 family and in no other way can 

 you so readily gain the confidence 

 of the parent birds. 



Oftentimes, disaster overtakes a 

 robin family; for some reason the 

 parent birds do not return to the 

 nest and then the human neighbors 

 must take charge of the young. 

 If worms of various sorts are not 

 readily available, bread and milk 

 will nourish the robin children very 

 well. They grow up rapidly and 

 presently will learn to fly, but al- 

 though they by and by get their 

 own food themselves they still will 

 be very friendly witl; those who 

 have fed them. They should be 

 allowed complete freedom and will, 

 of course at the migration time, 

 fly away south with their fellows. 



If your young robins survive the 

 winter they will surely return to 

 your yard and the delightfyl process 

 of nest-building may be watched 

 all over again. 



Robins, probably the same family 

 certainly their descendants if not 

 the same birds, have nested year 

 after year in the same site for twenty 

 years. 



A U.S. patent granted Edward F. 

 Millard, describse a process for mak- 

 ing an all-groundwood newsprint 

 paper in which about 50 per cent, of 

 a short thin fibrous pulp is mixed with 

 50 per cent, oi a long fibered pulp. 

 The short-fibered pulp can be pro- 

 duced by using a machine such as 

 Millard describes in his patent, and 

 the long fibered pulp can be made 

 with the same machine". It is claimed 

 that the long fibres facilitate the 

 running of the pulp while the short 

 fibres give strength and finish to the 

 sheet. 



— „ — 4. 



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