ECONOMIC VALUE OF BIRDS TO THE STATE. 



6l 



Robin is, however, too valuable to be exterminated, and choice fruit can be readily 

 protected from its depredations. 



"An examination of 330 stomachs shows that over 42 per cent of its food is 

 animal matter, principally insects, while the remainder is made up largely of small 

 fruits or berries. Over 19 per cent consists of beetles, about one-third of 

 which are useful ground beetles, taken mostly in spring and fall, when other insects 

 are scarce. Grasshoppers make up about one-tenth of the whole food, but in 

 August comprise over 30 per cent. Caterpillars form 6 per cent, while the rest of 

 the animal food, about 7 per cent, is made up of various insects, with a few spiders, 

 snails, and angle-worms. All the grasshoppers, caterpillars, and bugs, with a large 

 ■portion of the beetles, are injurious, and it is safe to say that noxious insects com- 

 prise more than one-third of the Robin's food. 



"Vegetable food forms nearly 58 per cent of the stomach contents, over 47 being 

 wild fruits, and only little more than 4 per cent being possibly cultivated varieties. 

 Cultivated fruit amounting to about 25 per cent was found in the stomachs in June 

 and July, but only a trifle in August. Wild fruit, on the contrary, is eaten every 

 month, and constitutes a staple food during half the year. No less than forty-one 

 species were identified in the stomachs ; of these, the most important were four 

 species of dogwood, three of wild cherries, three of wild grapes, four of greenbrier, 

 two of holly, two of elder; and cranberries, huckleberries, blueberries, barberries, 

 service berries, hackberries, and persimmons, with four species of sumac, and various 

 other seeds not strictly fruit. 



" The depredations of the Robin seem to be confined to the smaller and earlier 

 fruits, and few, if any, complaints have been made against it on the score of eating 

 apples, peaches, pears, grapes, or even late cherries. By the time these are ripe the 

 forests and hedges are teeming with wild fruits, which the bird evidently finds more 

 to its taste. The cherry, unfortunately, ripens so early that it is almost the only 

 fruit accessible at a time when the bird's appetite has been sharpened by a long- 

 continued diet of insects, earth-worms, and dried berries, and it is no wonder that 

 at first the rich juicy morsels are greedily eaten. In view of the fact that the Robin 

 takes ten times as much wild fruit as cultivated fruit, it seems unwise to destroy the 

 birds to save so little. Nor is this necessary, for by a little care both may be pre- 

 served. Where much fruit is grown it is no great loss to give up one tree to the 

 birds ; and in some cases the crop can be protected by scarecrows. Where wild 

 fruit is not abundant, a few fruit-bearing shrubs and vines judiciously planted will 

 serve for an ornament and provide food for the birds. The Russian mulberry is a 

 vigorous grower and a profuse bearer, ripening at the same time as the cherry, and, 



