FOOD OF ROBINS AND BLUEBIRDS. 3 



While for the most part migratory in the northern half of the 

 country, individuals remain all winter in many localities where shel- 

 ter and food are assured. In eastern Massachusetts and at some 

 places farther west there are cedar swamps which offer an abundant 

 supply of wild fruit, and robins remain there throughout the winter 

 in considerable numbers. Most of the species spend the winter from 

 latitude 40° southward, and begin to move northward as soon as 

 snow disappears. They arrive in New England in the latter part of 

 March or early in April and in the northern States of the Missis- 

 sippi Valley somewhat earlier. It is difficult to say just when the 

 fall migration begins, as the first birds to leave are replaced by 

 others from farther north. They are often very abundant in the 

 latitude of Massachusetts during the first half of November, but by 



^^fimMim^^ 



Fig. 1. — Robin (Planesticus migratorius) . 



the last of the month all have either left for the south or retired into 

 winter quarters. 



In its breeding habits the robin is very domestic, having learned 

 to place a good deal of confidence in its human neighbors. It com- 

 monly selects orchards as nesting places, or fearlessly builds upon a 

 projecting shelf of a piazza or under an open shed where persons 

 pass man}^ times during the day. Stone walls and stump fences are 

 often utilized, and in one case known to the writer the nest was 

 * placed directly upon the ground. The bird's confidence is rarely 

 abused and it is allowed to rear its brood undisturbed wherever the 

 nest may be. Four young are commonly raised in a brood and two or 

 more broods are reared in a season. In the northern part of the 

 country, especially in New England, the bird is thought so well of 

 that one is rarely killed or disturbed. 



