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their supply of dormant insects. These and other important 

 facts may be found in Prof. Jenck's interesting Keport. 



I will now proceed to speak of my own experience in regard ' 

 to the habits of the Kobin. This bird is not omnivorous : his 

 food consists more entirely of insects than any other bird that 

 can be named ; for the other large Thrushes will occasionally 

 swallow a grain of corn, which the Eobin has never been 

 known to do. He has been accused of living upon fruits 

 alone, and by others of adding no other article to his feast of 

 fruits except earth-worms, which are believed to be profitable 

 to the soil. He is often seen, after a shower, drawing a worm 

 from its hole ; but this is more frequently a cutworm than any- 

 thing else, as I have ascertained by repeated observation. He 

 also devoui-s, indiscriminately, nearly all sorts of insects that 

 crawl upon the surface of the soil, except those of a very mi- 

 nute species. He prefers the corneous insects for his own 

 food, and uses worms and larva chiefly for his young that re- 

 quire soft food. Earth-worms are not relished by old birds, 

 save the Marsh birds, when they can obtain orthopterous and 

 other hard-shelled insects ; poultry, though greedy consumers 

 of earth-worms early in the season, will always reject them for 

 grasshoppers, when they can take their choice. 



A very small proportion of the insectivorous birds take their 

 food from the ground, but confine their labors to the leaves 

 and branches of trees, as explained in my preceding remarks 

 on foraging. To the Robin and other Thrushes, the Black- 

 bu-ds, the Grackles and the gallinaceous birds has Nature 

 chiefly entrusted the work of ridding the surface of the ground 

 of noxious insects. But of all species, the Robin is in this 

 respect the most useful, in our own land. He is peculiarly the 

 guardian of the grass-field and of all our annual crops. Hence 

 we find the number of Robins in the suburbs of our cities 

 greater than in the rural districts, because they find the most 

 food where the soil is in the highest state of cultivation o-iy- 

 ing birth to proportional quantities of insects. There are no 

 other birds that could supply their place with equal advantao-e 

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