96 BIRDS OF CALIFORNIA AFFECTING FRUIT INDUSTRY. 
As it was, Mr. Goodrich placed his loss on the olive crop through 
the devastations of the robins at 25 percent of the whole, or about 
$5,000, while his foreman, in an interview with the writer, estimated 
the loss at 50 percent. He stated also that robins were so numerous 
that he killed 7 in a tree at a single shot. 
The San Jose Mercury also states: 
A representative of the Mercury visited the E] Quito olive orchard to see what 
the facts were in this matter. He found a force of men picking the fruit as 
rapidly as possible, and he also saw thousands upon thousands of rcbins doing 
the same thing. On his way out he occasionally saw a single bird on the fence 
or ina prune tree, but when he reached El Quito the sky was streaked with 
robins flitting about and having a gala time of it. Men were scattered about 
through the orchard with guns, and every few minutes the report of one of 
these would set the robins to flying, but in an instant they would settle down 
ugain and resume their feast. 
Hon. Ellwood Cooper, of Santa Barbara, one of the largest olive 
growers on the Pacific coast, in a letter dated January 25, 1901, says: 
The robin is a terrible pest to olives. ‘The birds do not always appear to come 
to the coast. My first experience was some fifteen years ago. The olives were 
late in ripening. Iwas as late as March making oil. The robins appeared to come 
in by the thousands. My last orchard that year was about one-half mile in length. 
The pickers were at one end. JI had a man with a gun at the other, but they 
would attack the middle, and when the gunner would reach them they would 
fly to the end he left. This year they have been particularly bad. My boys 
reported that the birds, mostly robins, picked more olives than they could. The 
foreman of the pickers told me that he had knocked from a tree one-quarter of 
a sack and went to dinner; when he returned not an olive was on the ground. 
T know that on the ground in one orchard where the rain had caused to fall as 
many olives as would fill a bushel basket, in a week not one would be seen. The 
robins do not seem to be able to pick the olives so rapidly from the trees, but 
peck at those that are commencing to dry, knock them to the ground, then get 
them. The birds at this writing are in all my orchards by the thousands. They 
do not appear every year. It has been my theory that the native berries in the 
Sierra some years are not in sufficient quantities for food. 
Tn the last sentence Mr. Cooper has probably suggested the true 
cause of the trouble. There is a crop of olives every year and the 
number of robins fluctuates little, but they rarely attack olives because 
usually their native food abounds. Where this fails the hungry 
birds shift about until they find a substitute. 
SUMMARY. 
With the exception of such sporadic cases as the above, the food 
habits of the robin are for the most part of a beneficial, or at least 
harmless, character, In the eastern part of the country very little 
damage by the robin is reported, though it is one of the most abundant 
species. This is probably largely owing to the plentifulness of wild 
fruits throughout the season. The trouble in California is that the 
robins from an extensive region concentrate into a comparatively 
