. TFNTH ORDINARY MEETING. 91 



bery, or pipes its evening song from the roof of some lofty building, 

 is one of the most welcome sounds in Spring. Indeed I know of 

 none among all our feathered visitors so worthy of being cherished 

 and protected. It comes about our lawns and dwellings, and if only 

 unmolested will build its nest and lay its eggs and hatch its young 

 under the very eyes of the household. Its cheerful notes are the 

 first we hear on waking, for the Robin is abroad at early dawn, 

 and through the live long day it is going and coming in quest of 

 food for itself or its you.ng, stopping every now and again f oi- a 

 short snatch of cheery song, and then, as the sun goes down, 

 perched on some tree, or it may be high up on the gable of some 

 lofty building, it will pour forth its sweet notes continuously — 

 sometimes for half an hour or more ; the last of all the gi-ove to 

 relapse into silence. The quantities of grubs, caterpillars, cutwoi-ms, 

 crickets and grasshoppers which are captured and devoured by 

 the Robin and other thrushes is something marvellous ; and as the 

 Robin not unfrequently raises three broods in the year, his species 

 must destroy more of these insects than almost all other birds put 

 together. Nothwithstanding all this because the Robin occasionally 

 treats itself to a few strawberries or cherries or grapes by way of 

 desert, it has been proscribed in some places by the fruit gi-owers, 

 who have had influence enough to persuade our local legislature to 

 take it out of the list of insectivorous birds protected by law, and 

 allow, in the woi-ds of the act, "Any person during the fruit season 

 to shoot and destroy the Birds known as the Robin and the Cherry 

 Bird." It is scarcely fair to the Robin to put it in such company, 

 though even the Cherry Bird, with all its fondness for fruit, assists 

 in ridding our fruit trees of a host of insect enemies which infest 

 them. In the case of the Robin, however, I have repeatedly, again 

 and again, watched it while feeding its young — earth-worms, grubs, 

 vine-worms, caterpillars and other insect food were being brought all 

 day long, and on these the young birds were fed exclusively, and 

 when it is borne in mind that the Robin, as I have already stated, 

 not unfrequently raises three broods in the year, their services in 

 the destruction of insect pests must more than pay three times over 

 for all the fruit they devour. 



Quickly following upon the arrival of the Robins comes the Blue 

 Bird (Sialia Sialis). Not so bold and fearless as the Robin, it 

 does not come about our dwellings and grounds in quite the same 



