ANIMAL LIFE ABOUT DUNFORDS FARM 289 



I have seen them in American apple-trees, comparatively 

 hard and tasteless as that fruit is. I am puzzled about 

 these apples — whence came they ? They are small and 

 elongated in shape, something like a tiny sausage. They 

 are not worth the picking, though they are made into 

 jam by the Yankees, as is everything else that is not as 

 hard as a cannon-ball. All the fruits mentioned above are 

 found abundantl}^ in the Michigan forests. 



At the risk of being tedious, I must yet say a few 

 words about the song of the robin. He is not to be 

 compared to our own beautiful song-thrush, yet his few 

 notes are sweet and plaintive ; and I have never met the 

 backwoodsman or hunter who would not stop to listen to 

 him, as, perched on the top of a tree or bush, he uttered 

 at intervals his few charming combinations of sweet 

 sounds — a sort of mellow whistle, not at all like the 

 song of our thrush. The robin is something of a mock- 

 ing-bird too. He imitates the songs of other birds, but 

 not at all so well as the mocking-bird, and I have heard 

 them evidently striving to repeat the whistle of man. In 

 captivity they will learn a few notes from the flute, and 

 they are agreeable cage-birds, becoming very tame, and 

 recognising their owner. My host had two, one of which 

 he had in a cage for twenty years. It was so tame that 

 it would come onto his finger at his call. 



The robin leaves Canada and the north of the States 

 in September and October, though I have seen odd ones 

 in Michigan as late as the first half of November. They 

 do not go very far south to winter, certainly not as far 

 south as Florida, and they are the very first birds to 

 return in spring, beginning to reappear in March. Their 

 advent is always joyfully noticed by the farmers and 

 others as an indication of the return of fine weather. 



I will not describe any other l:>ird here ; but nearly all 

 those noticed in the British territory to the north — that is, 

 Red River, &c., &c. — are found in this part of the State. 

 Wild ducks of all sorts are extremely abundant in the 

 marshes near the shores of the lake, but I did not see 



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