390 MEMOIRS OF THE NUTTALL ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. 



247. Merula migratoria (Linn.). 

 American Robin. Robin. 



Permanent resident, abundant in spring, summer and autumn ; of somewhat irregular 

 occurrence in winter. 



NESTING DATES. 



April 25 — May 5. 



Of all our native birds the Robin is perhaps best able to adapt himself to 

 changed or changing conditions. Trustful, in a wisely discriminating way, in 

 his attitude towards man; ever on the alert for prowling catsj^ too big and brave 

 to be bullied or crowded by English Sparrows ; he regards the conversion of farm- 

 ing lands and orchards into densely populated suburbs with apparent indiffer- 

 ence, and easily contents himself with a narrow strip of lawn as a feeding ground, 

 and the branch or fork of some large shade tree as a site for his nest. Thus he 

 still clings persistently to many urban localities which most of our native birds 

 have long since nearly or quite deserted. Indeed there are few neighborhoods 

 in Cambridge or its suburbs which he does not continue to bless by his cheery 

 presence and loud, musical song. Throughout the region lying between Har- 

 vard Square and Mount Auburn his numbers have not materially diminished 

 during the past thirty or forty years. Still further inland he occurs practically 

 everywhere, but most numerously and conspicuously in the farming districts and 

 about the outskirts of towns and villages. 



These statements relate, of course, chiefly to spring and early summer, for 

 soon after rearing their second broods of young — most of which are able to 

 shift for themselves before the middle of August — our Robins change not only 

 their haunts but their habits, also. Abandoning their diet of earthworms, and 

 assembling in flocks, they now range widely over the country in search of ber- 

 ries of various kinds, on which they subsist almost wholly during the remain- 

 der of the year. It is true that they revisit our city gardens in early September 

 when the rum cherries are ripe, and that even later in the year we occasionally see 

 them running about in the old familiar way over our lawns and flower-beds, but 

 throughout the autumn they spend most of their time in retired fields, pastures 

 and woodlands, or in swampy thickets bordering brooks and meadows. Most 

 if not all of our local-bred birds depart for the south before the close of October. 



1 This is true only of adult birds, for very many of the young are destroyed by cats. 



