286 USEFUL BIRDS. 
berries, cranberries, and Juneberries. The methods of 
protecting cultivated fruit against the Robin are given 
elsewhere. 
The Robin is the “early bird that catches the worm.” 
Who has not seen it hopping over the field or lawn, with 
head erect, looking and perhaps listening for 
worms and grubs? All know the skill with 
which it finds them and drags them forth 
to daylight. Robins destroy numbers of 
earthworms every spring, and throughout the season they 
get as many as they can readily find. Earthworms have been 
considered useful creatures since Darwin’s studies showed us 
how they help to cultivate the soil; therefore at first sight 
we might regard the Robin’s habit of eating them as injurious ; 
but worms are remarkably prolific, and were they to increase 
without check they might cultivate the fields and lawns so 
assiduously as to interfere with the growth of plants. Some 
city lawns where birds are not plentiful have been rendered 
brown and unsightly by the numerous heaps of castings 
thrown up by the too plentiful worms. We may safely set 
down the earthworm habit of the Robin to its credit, so long 
as it merely assists in destroying the surplus crawlers. Earth- 
worms, however, form only a small part of the Robin’s food 
for the year. Worms are not found much at the surface in 
early spring, and during the dry weather of summer they are 
too far down for the Robin to find them; nevertheless, he 
is seen apparently “hunting worms” in the meadows and 
fields at any time from March to July, and in fact all through 
the season. If the ground is bare in January or February, 
Robins may be found now and then searching the fields for 
insects ; if January and February are snowy, they begin the 
search in March or early April. They find dormant cut- 
worms and other caterpillars in some numbers even in Feb- 
ruary. A very large per cent. of their food in February and 
‘March consists of the larve of March flies (Bibio albipennis). 
Every investigator who has studied the food of Robins has 
found quantities of these insects in their stomachs. These 
larvee live in colonies, and feed mainly on decaying vegetable 
