21

1916

(Robin) been beating was opened she invariably removed to
another and similarly lost interest in it if it were covered
by a cloth outside or by closing the blinds. This led me
to infer that she must be attracted by something in the
small glass panes which, because of their complete isolation
from sunlight, reflected very perfectly, at all hours of the day,
the neighboring tree and shrubbery to which they gave outlook.
Another possibility - to my mind less probable - is that she
may have been attracted by her own image, reflected in the
glass, perhaps mistaking it for that of another bird. Be this
as it may she apparently wasted almost three weeks of
her breeding season by her fatuous assaults on the window
panes for it was not until they finally ceased that she
laid her first clutch of eggs - in a nest low down in
the very apple tree whence she had been accustomed to
fly against the glass. During their continuation she
seemed to have only one other regular occupation - in
that of running about over the lawn with her mate in
quest of angle worms for food.
  A male Robin frequenting the grove at the rear of our old
barn regularly interpolated in his song, at frequent intervals
a note resembling so closely the second and higher-pitched
one in the song of Vireo flavifrons that I could not doubt
it had been borrowed or copied from that source.
The Robin singing about our farm house seemed to me
less fervent and general than usual, this year. Even at
daybreak and in the waning twilight I rarely heard more
than two or three males at any one time and sometimes
they remained mostly silent at all hours, for days
in succession.