HOW THE ROBIN GETS HIS WORM. 249 



of a town after a rain, that they " rained down." The truth 

 is that they were wandering about the surface, enjoying 

 the moisture, and were drowned or crushed before they could 

 get back. 



The robin knows very well this point in the natural history of 

 earthworms, and that rainy weather is the time to look for 

 them. His spirits rise with the dampness, and he becomes 

 more active, carolling his loud rain-song, gathering mud for 

 his nest, digging worms, and feeling unusually chirk and 

 happy just when other birds look depressed. If you wish to 

 see what a robin knows about angleworms, set the lawn- 

 sprinkler out some bright day. If Kobin is as hungry for 

 worms as usual, he will be there, hopping and digging right 

 under the shower of drops. Of course he is getting his back 

 wet when he might easily keep dry, but he knows that where 

 the ground is wettest the earthworms will come nearest the 

 surface-. 



I must confess that I never watched a robin carefully to see 

 how he ate his worm, but the narrative is so interesting that 

 I will quote from Mr. Daniel E. Owen's account of a pet her- 

 mit thrush, a description of the way the thrush ate its worms. 

 As the robin is a thrush, perhaps the description may serve for 

 both. " The bird began by worrying the worm, much as a cat 

 does a mouse, nipping, pecking, and slatting its victim vio- 

 lently. The attack seemed to be directed mainly at the ex- 

 tremities of the worm. Thus, in one case, the head of the 

 worm was pecked ten times, the tail seventeen times, and the 

 middle twice. The worm, of course, struggled vigorously at 

 first ; but after a time lost, in a measure, the power of motion. 

 Now and then the bird's beak would miss the worm, or would 

 slip off. At such times the mandibles came together with an 

 audible snap, conveying a suggestion of the torturing pinches 



