156 ORNITHOLOGY AND OOLOGY. 



of different scientific men, and my own, to show that the 

 prejudice against the bird is unjust and unfounded. Mr. 

 Trouvelot, of Medford, Mass., who is engaged in rearing 

 silkworms, for the production of silk, is troubled by the 

 Robm to a degree surpassing most other birds. He has a 

 tract of about seven or eight acres enclosed, and mostly 

 covered with netting. He is obliged, in self-defence, to kill 

 the birds which penetrate into the enclosure and destroy the 

 worms. Through the season, probably ten robins, for one 

 of all others, thus molest him ; and, of scores of these birds 

 which he has opened and examined, none had. any fruit or 

 bernes in their stomachs, — nothing but insects. It is to 

 be understood that this was not in a part of the summer 

 when berries were unripe : on the contrary, it was all 

 through the season. His land is surrounded with scrub- 

 oaks and huckleberry-bushes. These latter were loaded 

 with fruit, which was easier of access to the birds than the 

 worms ; but none were found in them. He says they came 

 from all quarters to destroy his silkworms, and gave him 

 more trouble than all the other birds together. He said 

 that, in his opinion, if the birds were all killed off, vegeta- 

 tion would be entirely destroyed. To test the destructive- 

 ness of these marauders, as he regarded them, he placed on 

 a small scrub-oak near his door two thousand of his silk- 

 worms. (These, let me say, resemble, when small, the 

 young caterpillar of the apple-tree moth.) In a very few 

 days they were all eaten by Cat-birds and Robins, — birds 

 closely allied, and of the same habits. This was in the 

 berry season, when an abundance of this kind of food was 

 easily accessible ; but they preferred his worms. Why ? 

 Because the young of these, as well as those of most other 

 birds, must be fed on animal food. Earthworms assist in 

 the regimen ; but how often can birds like the Robin, Cat- 

 bird, Thrush, &c., get these ? Any farmer knows, that, when 

 the surface of the ground is dry, they go to the subsoil, out 

 of the reach of birds ; and it is not necessary here t^ say 



