360 



Brewster on Robin Roosts. 



fOctober 



SUMMER ROBIN ROOSTS. 



BY WILLIAM BREWSTER. 



Perhaps the greatest charm of ornithology is that its pursuit 

 yields surprises when they are least expected. Especially true is 

 this of the study of birds' habits, for a close watch kept on even 

 the commoner species is sure, sooner or later, to reveal facts npt 

 in the books. Nor is this strange, for a lifetime is not long 

 enough for fathoming all the secrets of the woods and fields 

 immediately about one's home, while the general subject is 

 inexhaustible. Moreover, a discovery which comes early and 

 easily to one may long elude others equally vigilant. Yet who 

 would suspect that at this late day, there could be an unwritten 

 page in the life history of our Robin {Merula migratoria) ^ a 

 species of unusually general distribution, abundant nearly every- 

 where, and probably familiar to a larger number of people than 

 any other bird on this continent.? Nevertheless no author whom 

 I have consulted so inuch as mentions the fact that Robins, 

 while still in their summer haunts, form roosts* which are re- 

 sorted to regularly night after night and season after season by 

 hundreds or even thousands. Such gatherings, however, are by 

 no means uncommon in Massachusetts, and they doubtless occur 

 throughout the entire North, wherever Robins abound. 



Possibly, they have been neglected rather than overlooked. 

 In either case I hope to show that they are not without interest 

 and importance. What I have to say of them proceeds chiefly 

 from personal experience, but I have also drawn freely froin the 

 notes of Messrs. Faxon, Batchelder and Torreyf, to all of whom 

 I am indebted for much valuable aid in the preparation of this 

 paper. 



Our Massachusetts Robin roosts are invariably in low-lying 

 woods which are usually swampy and are composed of such de- 



*It has been known for some time of course, that Robins form large roosts while 

 in their winter quarters in the South, but no very exact or precise information con- 

 cerning these roosts seems to have been thus far recorded. 



tMr. Torrey has written an article on this subject for the October issue of the 

 'Atlantic Monthly.' It will relate, I understand, chiefly to a roost at Melrose High- 

 lands which he has studied closely. 



