The Western Robin 
wire at eight cents a 
foot to cover them. 
Fruits which ripen 
in summer suffer to some 
extent from Robin's dep¬ 
redations, but his appe¬ 
tite for cherries, even, is 
by no means insatiable; 
and the best protection 
for any orchard is an 
outside row of thrifty 
mulberry trees. 
And of course Rob¬ 
ins eat bugs, oodles of 
them, besides thousand- 
legs, sow-bugs, snails, 
and angle worms. One 
governmental expert, 
with monumental pa¬ 
tience, has identified 194 
species of beetles found 
in Robins’ stomachs. 
The birds had even swal¬ 
lowed Platynus brunneo- 
marginatus, Splicer idium 
scarabozoides, CEdiony- 
chis interjectionis , Cerco- 
peus chrysorrhceus and 
Conotrachelus anaglypti- 
cus, without apparent 
injury to their inner 
works. By this same 
authority, Dr. Beal, the 
Robin was credited with 
only one species of fly, 
Bibio alpennis , whose 
larvae were gleaned from the ground. I wonder, then, what the birds 
could have been feeding on at Vidette Meadow in the central Sierras (alt. 
9,700 feet), where I saw them hawking out from the tree-tops like 
Flycatchers. One Robin sailed out from a full hundred feet, snatched 
a shimmering something midair with a graceful fillip, then recovered 
and alighted upon the nearest convenient tree. “Fish-worms” and fallen 
Taken in Idaho 
Photo by Rust 
“YOUNG ROBINS ARE DARLING CREATURES 1 ' 
767 
