BIRDS OF FIELD AND GARDEN. 287 
matter. They are usually harmless, but sometimes eat living 
roots, and are believed to be capable of doing serious injury 
to grass lands. The fact that Robins feed almost constantly 
on March fly larve, thus keeping them under control, may 
account for the little injury that these insects ordinarily do. 
Professor Forbes took one hundred and seventy-five from the 
stomach of 4 single bird. Our bird is very destructive to 
caterpillars, especially the species that live on or near the 
ground. 
The cutworm is the early worm that the Robin gets. These 
cutworms (the larvee of Noctuid moths) are dull-colored, hair- 
less caterpillars, that are most often seen on the ground. 
They usually hide during the day about the roots of plants, 
under matted grass, or under the loose soil along rows of 
plants in the garden. They come out of their hiding places 
at dusk, and feed. Their destructiveness consists in their 
manner of feeding. They often eat away the stems of young 
plants near the ground, thus destroying many plants for the 
sake of a few mouthfuls of food. Young cabbages, tomatoes, 
beans, etc., fall victims to these pests. Where cutworms are 
numerous, nothing can be successfully grown until they are 
killed off. Probably the various species are individually and 
collectively the most destructive of all caterpillars. 
The Robin is abroad at the first break of day and until the 
dusk of evening. He finds the cutworms in the morning 
before they have crawled into their holes, and at night when 
they first venture out; and he digs them out of the earth at 
all hours of the day. Perhaps no other bird is so destructive 
to these caterpillars in gardens. Professor Forbes found that 
cutworms and other caterpillars formed thirty-seven per cent. 
of the food of nine Robins taken in March. Wilson Flagg 
watched the Robins about his house during a drought in July, 
when earthworms were not to be had. He asserted that the 
female bird carried off a cutworm as often as once in five 
minutes, and that he saw her take two and even three at a 
time. Professor Forbes found that nine May Robins had 
eaten cutworms to the extent of twenty per cent. of their 
food. These birds were taken in an orchard where canker- 
