LAND BIRDS. 723 
spend the winter in the southern half of the Lower Peninsula. Such 
individuals commonly retire to swamps or evergreen thickets, or make 
their homes in parks and private grounds, where good shelter and a fair 
supply of food may be found, and undoubtedly the birds noted earliest 
in spring are often these which have wintered in the vicinity, or possibly 
a little farther south. On the first approach of warm weather they be- 
come conspicuous and often begin to sing, so that reports of spring Robins 
are frequent in February and occasionally in January. While such in- 
stances are of most frequent occurrence in the southern half of the Lower 
Peninsula they are by no means confined to that section, and we have 
trustworthy accounts of the wintering of individual Robins in many of 
the northern counties, even a few from the Upper Peninsula. As an 
instance of this we may quote part of a letter dated March 5, 1909, from 
Mr. E. E. Brewster, of Iron Mountain, Dickinson county. He says: 
““T have been interested in watching a pair of robins, evidently young of 
this year, which have made their home with us the past winter. When 
my attention was first drawn to them there were three, but about Christmas 
one disappeared. The other two, apparently male and female, judging 
from the different coloration, were seen almost daily until February 1st 
when the food supply failed in my immediate neighborhood, and they 
were no longer regular visitants. One or both were seen at intervals, 
however, until February 14. Later I saw two feeding on sumac berries 
near the Pewabic Mine, about three-fourths of a mile east from my house. 
The last I saw of either was February 23d, when I saw one in the sumac 
bushes. This speaks pretty well for our winter climate when Robins 
can winter here (45° 50’ north). The early part of the winter they fed 
on mountain ash berries, but Pine Grosbeaks and Bohemian Waxwings 
finally cleared out the supply.” 
During mild winters considerable numbers of robins sometimes remain 
in the state, but ordinarily the van-guard of the migrating host reaches 
southern Michigan between March Ist and 15th, although in some seasons 
they are abundant in the latter half of February and numbers keep coming 
from the south until the first of April. Even in the Upper Peninsula 
Robins appear in considerable numbers early in April, often several weeks 
before the ground is free from snow. It is a matter of common remark 
that they become much more abundant with the clearing and settling 
of a region, yet the species is by no means unknown in the wildest parts 
of the state, and in open grounds, for example, the pine barrens in the 
northern half of the Lower Peninsula, or the bare spaces left by forest 
fires, Robins are almost if not quite as plentiful during the summer as in 
the more thickly settled regions to the south. During migration they 
travel in flocks of considerable size, and they often pass the winter in such 
companies. The southward migration begins in September, but the 
greater number linger until October, and large flocks may be seen every 
until late in November. 
Resting begins very early, always in April in the southern part of the 
state, and occasionally during the last week in March. In the vicinity 
of Lansing, Ingham county, the first nests with eges may usually be found 
about the middle of April, and the first young leave the nests about the 
middle of May (May 14, 1901, May 15, 1897). A second brood is almost 
invariably reared, the young leaving the nest about the first of July, but 
nests with eggs are often found late in July, or even in August, indicating 
third broods. In 1900 a brood of young left a nest on the College campus, 
