36 ROBIN. 



our towns; and from the circumstance of their leaving, during that 

 season, the country to the north-west of the great range of the Al- 

 leghany, from Maryland northward, it would appear that they not 

 only migrate from north to south, but from west to east, to avoid the 

 deep snows that generally prevail bn these high regions for at least 

 four months in the year. 



The Robin builds a large nest, often on an apple tree, plas- 

 ters it in the inside with mud, and lines it with hay or fine grass. 

 The female lays five eggs of a beautiful sea green. Their princi- 

 pal food is berries, worms and caterpillars. Of the first he prefers 

 those of the sour gum (Nyssa Sylvaticd), So fond are they of Gum 

 berries, that wherever there is one of these trees covered with fruit, 

 and flocks of Robins in the neighbourhood, the sportsman need 

 only take his stand near it, load, take aim, and fire ; one flock suc- 

 ceeding another with little interruption, almost the whole day ; by 

 this method prodigious slaughter has been made among them with 

 little fatigue. When berries fail they disperse themselves over the 

 fields, and along the fences, in search of worms and other insects. 

 Sometimes they will disappear for a week or two, and return again 

 in greater numbers than before ; at which time the cities pour out 

 their sportsmen by scores, and the markets are plentifully supplied 

 with them at a cheap rate. In January, 1 807. two young men in 

 one excursion after them, shot thirty dozen. In the midst of such 

 devastation, which continued many weeks, and by accounts extend- 

 ed from Massachusetts to Maryland, some humane person took ad- 

 vantage of a circumstance common to these birds in winter, to stop 

 the general slaughter. The fruit called poke-berries {Phytolacca 

 decandra, Linn.) is a favorite repast with the Robin, after they are 

 mellowed by the frost. The juice of the berries is of a beautiful 

 crimson, and they are eaten in such quantities by these birds, that 

 their whole stomachs are strongly tinged with the same red color. 

 A paragraph appeared in the public papers, intimating, that from 

 the great quantities of these berries which the Robins had fed on, 



