162 llowK, Breedh/o- Habits of the Robin. FApril 



BREEDING HABITS OF THE AMERICAN ROBIN 



{MERULA MIGRATORIA) IN EASTERN 



MASSACHUSETTS. 



by reginald heber howe, jr. 



Arrival and Dates of Nesting. 



The arrival of migrant male Robins in Eastern Massachusetts 

 occurs early in March, the females about a week later and gener- 

 ally by the fifteenth of the month they are to be seen in fair 

 numbers in their old haunts. By the tenth of April nests are to 

 be found under construction — these early builders as often, I 

 think, choosing the bare crotch of a maple, as the more protected, 

 both from weather and sight, branches of a spruce or pine. 

 Throughout the rest of April and fully two thirds of May we may 

 find nests under construction that are to hold the first brood. I 

 am inclined to beUeve that the first arrivals are the early builders 

 and that the birds that arrive in late March and early April are 

 the birds we find nest constructing in early or mid May. 



Mating. 



For the same reason that I believe individual Crows and Blue 

 Jays are resident in a locality, I believe that a pair of Robins 

 that have nested in a certain tree or in a certain area are the 

 identical birds that have done so for years. In other words, an 

 ornithologist continually in the field in one bit of country year 

 after year comes to know the general habits of certain common 

 birds, their special ways and traits, and with a degree of cer- 

 tainty can assert that they are the same birds he sees the year 

 round or that come to his locality yearly. For instance, I know 

 of a pair of Robins that nested in a friend's garden three years 

 in succession. Food was placed outside the dining room window 

 during their first spring, of which they partook regularly. Each 

 successive year they returned to the garden to breed, and on 

 arrival would come to be fed at the window as they had been 

 accustomed to do. The young were also brought by their parents 



