OF NEW ENGLAND. 43 
ferring to remain in open lands, in the neighborhood of man, 
and about cultivated estates, and are so little wild as to inhabit 
Boston Common and other equally frequented places. In the 
country, they pass the summer in villages and such other 
haunts as I have described, gathering into flocks in the latter 
part of August, and journeying to warmer climates in Septem- 
ber or October. Robins are in some parts of the State so 
plentiful, that in May sixty of their nests, containing eggs, 
were found in an area of fifteen acres. Had Massachusetts 
then been populated by these thrushes in that proportion of 
parent-birds to an acre, it would have contained nearly 40,- 
000,000 of them, whereas I suppose that it actually contained 
less than 1,000,000. 
To those who consider Robins either useless or injurious to 
man the following remarks on the nature of their food may be 
of interest. In winter and in the early part of spring, they 
feed chiefly upon berries, such as those of the barberry, poison- 
ous “ivy,” etc., but as soon as the frost is expelled from the 
ground, they begin their attacks upon the earthworms, and con- 
stantly renew them throughout the summer and in September, 
wherever earthworms are abundant. One may often see Robins 
gathered on a lawn, particularly after hard showers, eagerly 
engaged in unearthing their prey, now running along so quickly 
that it is almost impossible to detect the motion of their feet 
(which, in fact, is not hopping, but walking), now stopping, 
and, having cocked their heads to one side that their ears may 
be near the ground, listening intently, then passing on, or 
perhaps stopping, and with two or three vigorous strokes of 
their bills, pulling out the worms, which are soon disposed of. 
When they fail to secure their prey, after a few bold “digs,” 
they generally move on and do not make any further attempt 
to obtain it. They make extensive raids upon cherries “‘ and 
strawberries,” when ripe, and feed upon ripe pears and apples, 
-especially in autumn, generally meddling with these latter fruits 
when fallen to the ground, and not when on the trees. In re- 
turn for these robberies, they destroy innumerable “ cut-worms ” 
and other injurious creatures of the same kind, and confer, in 
