BIRDS OF FIELD AND GARDEN. 287 



matter. They are usually harmless, but sometimes eat living 

 roots, and are believed to be capable of doing serious injury 

 to grass lands. The fact that Robins feed almost constantly 

 on March fly larvae, thus keeping them under control, may 

 account for the little injury that these insects ordinarily do. 

 Professor Forbes took one hundred and seventy-five from the 

 stomach of a single bird. Our bird is very destructive to 

 caterpillars, especially the species that live on or near the 

 ground. 



The cutworm is the early worm that the Robin gets. These 

 cutworms (the larvye of Noctuid moths) are dull-colored, hair- 

 less caterpillars, that are most often seen on the ground. 

 They usually hide during the day about the roots of plants, 

 under matted grass, or under the loose soil along rows of 

 plants in the garden. They come out of their hiding places 

 at dusk, and feed. Their destructiveness consists in their 

 manner of feeding. They often eat away the stems of young 

 plants near the ground, thus destroying many plants for the 

 sake of a few mouthfuls of food. Young cabbages, tomatoes, 

 beans, etc., fall victims to these pests. Where cutworms are 

 numerous, nothing can be successfully grown until they are 

 killed off. Probably the various species are individually and 

 collectively the most destructive of all caterpillars. 



The Robin is abroad at the first break of day and until the 

 dusk of evening. He finds the cutworms in the morning 

 before they have crawled into their holes, and at night when 

 they first venture out ; and he digs them out of the earth at 

 all hours of the day. Perhaps no other bird is so destructive 

 to these caterpillars in gardens. Professor Forbes found that 

 cutworms and other caterpillars formed thirty-seven per cent, 

 of the food of nine Robins taken in March. Wilson Flagg 

 watched the Robins about his house during a drought in July, 

 when earthworms were not to be had. He asserted that the 

 female bird carried off a cutworm as often as once in five 

 minutes, and that he saw her take two and even three at a 

 time. Professor Forbes found that nine May Robins had 

 eaten cutworms to the extent of twenty per cent, of their 

 food. These birds were taken in an orchard where canker- 



