THE FOREST 191 



in numbers ever since the forest had reached a sap- 

 ling height, and have spent the nights troni June 

 to October. There may at times be several hun- 

 dreds, but I have never counted them. When 

 the female robin is brooding the young, the male 

 and his bachelor friends resort to this club-house 

 at night. Later they are joined by the juvenals 

 and, when all the broods have flown the nest, 

 doubtless by the females also. Before dusk the 

 robins come from all sides, frequently alighting 

 first in a field from which they dive from below 

 into the forest. Some of them alight on tall out- 

 lying trees and from there enter the forest from 

 above. Sometimes, especially on rainy days, the 

 birds drop down from the air without prelimi- 

 nary preparation. 



On a pleasant evening in September I con- 

 cealed myself in the lean-to in the forest to watch 

 from the inside the coming of the robins to the 

 roost. At a quarter after five, by true time, 

 came the first arrivals, and soon the ground ami 

 lower branches of the trees were alive with them. 

 After a little preening, a few conversational notes 

 and an occasional fight with sharp cries and 



