UTILITY OF BIRDS. 77 



accepted. The manner in wliicli the robin managed these 

 insects was proof that they agreed with his instincts. They 

 were placed upon the floor of his cage, and on picking them 

 up, he killed them in a way that showed that he knew how 

 they ought to be managed, as a cat knows how to seize a rat or 

 a mouse, though she has not been instructed. He was particu- 

 lar in beating the wire-worm, before he swallowed it, but he 

 never refused to eat one. On one occasion, having swallowed 

 a hard beetle, and finding it incommodious, he threw it up by 

 a ruminating effort, seized it again, thrapped it awhile against 

 the floor, and then swallowed it a second time. This manreuvre 

 proved his instinctive knowledge of the mode of proceeding 

 in such emergencies ; and it is hardly necessary to repeat the 

 truism, that no animal or bird can know how to manage a 

 living thing which he is going to devour, unless it be his 

 natural food. 



It is now generally understood that the pul)lic will not 

 consent, for the gratification of fruit-growers, to exterminate 

 the robins ; when the people fully understand the value of 

 grackles and blackbirds, these will also be protected ; and 

 farmers and horticulturists must devise certain expedients to 

 defend their crops from their depredations. The granivorous 

 species should at certain seasons be fed with grain at the public 

 expense ; and for the frugivorous species, cherry trees should 

 at the public expense, be planted abundantly by the roadsides. 

 The number of robins would not be increased by this greater 

 abundance of fruit, because fruit is not their staple article of 

 food ; their subsistence is dependent entirely on the supply of 

 insects. But in proportion to the general cultivation of fruits, 

 will the depredations of the robin and the wax-wing upon the 

 trees of our gardens be diminished. 



It is equally important, for the same end, to encourage the 

 growth of the early wild fruits. It is in the vicinity of Boston 

 and other large towns that the fruit-growers suffer the most 

 damage from the birds, because the blueberry bushes which 

 afford them a supply in the country, have been extirpated from 

 the wild lands near the former places. Blueberry bushes 

 should be planted extensively along the sides of fences in all 

 fields which are used for mowing or pasture. Thousands of 

 miles of stone-wall, in the vicinity of every large town, might 



