The Food of Birds. 
97 
but shall endeavor to show only what it eats under ordi- 
nary circumstances within the limits of Illinois. The spe- 
cies is not strictly migratory, but is reported as winter- 
ing, sometimes in considerable numbers, as far north as 
the White Mountains, in New Hampshire. It occurs but 
very rarely in winter in central or northern Illinois, as 
there is at that season not sufficient food to tempt it to 
brave our prairie winds. On the other hand, it is com- 
paratively rare in southern Illinois in summer, but us- 
ually abundant there in autumn and winter, so that as 
far as this State is concerned, it is practically a migrant 
within our limits. In the latitude of Bloomington its ad- 
vent depends on the forwardness of the season, but it us- 
ually appears not far from the first of March, and the 
last of the species are gone by October 15th or November 
1st. 
The nesting habit of this species is so varied that no* 
special provision need be made by those wishing to en- 
courage its multiplication. The lower branches of 
orchard trees are probably its favorite situation, but it 
selects the most various places and uses little art or cau- 
tion in the concealment of its nest. 
February. 
The robin appeared at Bloomington, this year, in con- 
siderable numbers, about the middle of February, the 
spring being an unusually early and open one. 
Eleven specimens were shot at Normal on the 27th and 
28th, and their stomachs carefully searched for food. We 
first note that ninety-nine per cent, of the food of these 
birds was insects, the remaining one per cent, being 
spiders. About fourteen per cent, of the food of these 
early birds consisted of caterpillars, all of them eaten by 
three birds, while seventy-six per cent, taken by every 
bird, was the larva of a slow, torpid fly, abundant in 
early summer, closely related to the Tipulids or crane- 
flies ( Bibio albipennis , Say). Prof. J. W. P. Jenks, now 
of Brown University, found this same larva to constitute 
about nine-tenths of the food of the robins examined by 
him in Massachusetts, in February and March, 1858 — a 
