﻿Common Birds in Relation to Agriculture. 52.3 



comprise over 30 per cent. Caterpillars form about 6 per 

 cent., while the rest of the animal food, about 7 per cent., 

 is made up of various insects, witli a few spiders, snails 

 and angle-worms. All the grasshoppers, caterpillars and 

 bugs, with a large portion of the beetles, are injurious, and 

 it is safe to say that noxious insects comprise more than 

 one-third of the robin's food. 



Vegetable food forms nearly 58 per cent, of the stomach 

 contents, over 47 being wild fruits and only a little more 

 than 4 per cent, being possibly cultivated varieties. Cul- 

 tivated fruit amounting to about 25 per cent, was found 

 in the stomachs in June and July, but only a trifle in 

 August. Wild fruit, on the contrary, is eaten in every 

 month, and constitutes a staple food during half the year. 

 No less than forty-one species were identified in the 

 stomachs ; of these, the most important were four species 

 of dogwood, three of wild cherries, three of wild grapes, 

 four of greenbrier, two of holly, two of elder ; and cran- 

 berries, huckleberries, blueberries, barberries, service ber- 

 ries, hackberries and persimmons, with four species of 

 sumac, and various other seeds not strictly fruit. 



The depredations of the robin seem to be confined to 

 the smaller and earlier fruits, and few, if any, complaints 

 have been made against it on the score of eating apples, 

 peaches, pears, grapes, or even late cherries. By the time 

 these are ripe t|ie forests and hedges are teeming with 

 wild fruits, which the bird evidently finds more to its 

 taste. The cherry, unfortunately, ripens so early that it 

 is almost the only fruit accessible at a time when the 

 bird's appetite has been sharpened by a long-continued 

 diet of insects, earthworms and dried berries, and it is no 

 wonder that at first the rich juicy morsels are greedily 

 eaten. In view of the fact that the robin takes ten times 

 as much wild as cultivated fruit, it seems unwise to 

 destroy the birds to save so little. Nor is this necessary, 

 for by a little care both may be preserved. Where much 



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