A PLEA FOK PROTECTING OUR NATH E lURDS. ITO* 



exteusive orowcr of small fruits, cherries, or pears, will find very 

 little, comparatively, destroyed. My father formerly raised over a 

 hundred bushels of cherries annualh\ No perceptible damage 

 was done by the birds, except to the earliest and latest ia 

 ripening. We always expected the birds to eat what they wanted, 

 and never thought of frightening them from the trees. Why thia 

 great outcry against the robin, I cannot tell, but with your per- 

 mission will quote briefly from others who are high authority. 



Mr. Samuels, in his "Birds of New England," in speaking of 

 the robin says: "Perhaps none of our birds are more unpopular 

 with the horticulturists than this ; and I will give the observations 

 of different scientific men, and my own, to show that the prejudice 

 against the bii'd is unjust and unfounded." 



Professor Treadwell, of Cambridge, reports: "The food of the 

 robin while with us, consists principally of worms, various insects, 

 their larva> and eggs, and a few cherries. Of worms and cherries- 

 they can procure but few, and those during but a short period ;: 

 and they are obliged, therefore, to subsist principally upon the 

 great destroyers of leaves — canker-worms, and some other kinds- 

 of caterpillars and bugs. If each robin, old and yonng, requires- 

 for its support an amount of these equal to the weight consumed 

 by this bird, it is easy to see what a prodigious havoc a few hun- 

 dred of these must make upon the insects of an orchard or nursery.'*' 

 Further on, Mr. Samuels says, " Wilson Flagg, an acute and care- 

 ful observer of the habits of our birds, gives some of his experi- 

 ences of the robin, as follows. He says, ' . . . the more I 

 have studied his habits, the more I am convinced of his usefulness^ 

 Indeed, I am now fully persuaded that he is valuable beyond all 

 other species of birds, and that his services are absolutely indis- 

 pensable to the farmers of New England. Some persons believe 

 that the robin is exclusively a frugivorous bird, and that for fruit 

 he will reject all other food that is within his reach. Others believe 

 that his diet consists about equally 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 omnivorous 

 like the crow, the jay, and the blackbird. He rejects farinaceous 

 food unless it is artificially prepared, derives almost his entire 



