360 BIRDS OF ALABAMA 



Vegetable matter, as determined by the examination of over 

 1,200 stomachs, constituted 57.6 per cent of the bird's total 

 food, and included, besides the varieties already mentioned, 

 cherries, currants, blackberries, mulberries, blueberries, 

 chokecherries, pokeberries, serviceberries, grapes, and others 

 — in all about 65 species of vi^ild fruit having been identified. 

 In the North, during the nesting season, robins consume a 

 considerable quantity of cultivated fruit and at times become 

 a pest when a good supply of their natural food of wild fruit 

 is not available. Animal matter, chiefly insects, made up 42.4 

 per cent of the robin's food, the forms most commonly eaten 

 being caterpillars, beetles, and grasshoppers.f 



SOUTHERN ROBIN: Turdtis migratorius achrusterus 

 (Batchelder).** 



State records. — The southern robin, a smaller and paler 

 race, occurs not uncommonly as a migrant and winter resident 

 and very rarely as a breeder in the northern part of the State. 

 Specimens of this form have been examined from Orange 

 Beach (January 27, 1912) ; Mobile (February 5, 1912) ; Carl- 

 ton (March 6, 1912) ; Autaugaville (March 22, 1914) ; and 

 Woodville (March 10 and 12, 1915). McCormack states that 

 the robin rarely nests near Florence, and that he observed one 

 at Leighton about June 30, 1911. Outsell learned that it nests 

 in small numbers at Bridgeport, at least two pairs having 

 been noted there in July, 1911. Graves noted the bird on Sand 

 Mountain, near Carpenter, as late as May 22 (1914) , and quite 

 probably it was nesting there at the time. Dean reports that 

 it nested at Anniston in 1916. At Jasper, April 29, 1914, we 

 found a robin's nest in a pine grove on the outskirts of the 

 town, the female being seen on the nest; in June of the same 

 year, Peters visited the spot again and observed both the old 

 birds and their young flying about. Avery reports an in- 

 stance of breeding at Montgomery in 1890, as follows: 



Two pairs of robins nested the past season in the yard of 

 John L. Cobbs, state treasurer, in the city of Montgomery. The 

 young were reared and they remained with their parents in the 



tBeal, F. E. L., Bull. 171, U. S. Dept. Agr., 1915. 



**Plane8ticog migTatoTlus achrusterua of the A. O. U. Check-list ; for change of name 

 tee Proc. Biol. Sec. Washington, vol. 34, p. lOB, 1921. 



