BIRDS OF FIELD AND GARDEN. 289 
dug down to them. The hole was often two to three inches 
deep, and they found the grubs unerringly. They might 
not have been able to do this had the surface not been kept 
well fined and mellow. 
The Robin revels in a well-cultivated garden. If he is not 
molested, he will follow behind plow, hoe, or cultivator, and 
pick up the grubs that are turned up, before they are able to 
bury themselves in the soil. The Robins about our place 
soon learned to pick up grubs and worms that were thrown 
to them. The number that they find in a season is beyond 
computation. They were so diligent in our gardens and 
fields that the white grubs did no material injury. One 
mother bird that was following me one morning picked up 
three large grubs, ong after another. She laid the first two 
down on hard ground, secured the third, and then after two 
or three futile attempts gathered them all in her beak and 
flew away to her nest near by, where she fed them to her 
eager young. The whole proceeding did not occupy over 
five minutes. 
Wherever these grubs appear in such numbers as to de- 
stroy the turf on lawns, the Robin is always the most effi- 
cient agency for their destruction. Robins flock to such 
places, and find more grubs than does any other bird. In 
meadows remote from houses Crows may be equally efficient, 
but usually they are too shy to approach very near occupied 
dwellings. The efficiency of the Robin lies in its skill in 
finding and digging out the grubs (an accomplishment in 
which it appears to excel all other birds), and in its num- 
bers; for, except in villages and cities, where Sparrows are 
more numerous, Robins are the most abundant birds. As 
the season advances, Robins are often very destructive to 
grasshoppers ; all orders of insects suffer from their attacks. 
Even in June and July, when the Robin eats cultivated fruit, 
insects comprise over forty per cent. of its food. 
The character of the food of nestling Robins is very im- 
portant, for the Robin normally rears two or three broods 
each year. Weed and Dearborn found that the largest 
single element consumed by the young consisted of cut- 
worms and related caterpillars, which formed twenty-seven 
