''erula rnigrato_ria ( Roost at Melrose Highlands) -■ — - - 2 



I got there at 6.30 t o-night, and, as the evening wa s clear, 

 I felt sure of being in good season. Most of the robins v/ere al- 

 ready arriving. Eighteen came in the fi rst five minu es. At my 

 end during the hour, betwisen 6.30 and 7.30, 1267 birds arrived; or 

 rather, I counted that number. It is itnpossib le to be accurate. 

 They come so fast ^ at times that you cann ot tur n your head to 

 see 7;hat is going on on the other side of youfj^ithout doubt, I 

 missed many. Assuming that my eye took in a quarter of the cir- 

 cuit (•- it real y took in less than that very much ^ess for 



the last quarter hour,) you have more than 5,000 arrivals in 

 the hour. Birds were still coming v/hen I came away, but a black 

 el__,pud ma de it so dar :( suddenly dark) that I could see only the 

 stragglers that happened to i'o close by me. I have a suspicion 

 { not based on much, to be sure,) that the roos'i. is grov/mg lar- 

 ger night after nighi. BMy birds seemed to come more m flocks 

 to-night, which made the counting more difficult. Between 6.40 

 and 7.30 to-night, 1, 23:5 against 1072 last night in the same time. 

 Of the v/hole number to-n ight 818 arrived before the sunset gun. 

 Bradford Torrey, letter of July 29IS89.|'Ar If.^'o^^J 



Mr. ^axon tells me that he has given you my bulletins from 

 the Melrose Eobin roost and j have today written him that m.y pre- 

 vious figures prove to Jtave been exaggerated. They v/ere based on 

 the assumption that the birds entered the v;ood in about equal num- 

 bers on all sides. It turns out thai, at the easterly end, where 

 my counts were made, many uaare birds enter than on the northern 

 or v/estern side. I have made three counts at the eastern end: July 

 28, 1072; July 29, 1267; August I, 1533. Last night on the north 

 ern side I counted only 383. I am. not sure v/hat the increase at tfe 



easterly end means, whether an increase in the whole numberf^'or 



only an increased gregariousness , leading the biros more and more 

 to go and come together. In counting at the populous end, I was 



sure that I fell much short of getting all the birds hundreds 



short, I believe. My opinion is that the entries on that side 

 numbered more nearly 2000 than 1500. Rut my total estimate must 

 be cut dovm to 3000, or perhaps less. I am surprised to learn 

 from Faxon that the Cambridge congregation is much smaller, "hun- 

 dreds instead of thousands", and it occurs to me that you might 



think it worth v/hile to drive over and see it, as you will v/ish 



to describe the habit fully in your book The gathering beiiinsia 



in a scattering way, by half past five, and the tim.e will of 

 course grow earlier and earlier. . . . There is not much to be learn 



ed, so far as I cam make out, by going into the wood itself. — 



l^radfrod Torrey, letter o^ August 3, i889. 



