42 
THE CONDOR 
Vol. IV 
A Trait of the Western Robin. 
T he object of this article is to 
further inv^estigation by club mem- 
bers during the coming mating 
season of a peculiarity of our friend the 
robin, that has, so far as I know, passed 
unnoticed by contributors to the Con- 
dor, and that is the drooping of the 
bird’s wings. For the benefit of the un- 
informed I will add that quite a large 
but variable percentage of the birds in 
a flock of robins droop their wings con- 
tinuousl}' while feeding and infrequent- 
ly when perched elsewhere. Other 
avian species droop their wings at times 
but the habit does not seem to be so 
persistent in them as it does in the robin 
and it is in regard to the value of this 
habit to the bird itself that I wish to 
gain the assistance of the club members. 
For a long time I have noticed that 
when j uncos or goldfinches are pairing 
the wings of the male (and sometimes 
of the female) droop and flutter contin- 
uously while the bird is engaged in his 
amorous proposal to the female, and I 
have no doubt that these actions are of 
considerable benefit to the male birds in 
their annual courtships, as in some man- 
ner it expresses visibly to the female 
the depth and sincerity of the male 
bird’s passion for her, and those males 
that were most adept in such actions 
might in some way mate more success- 
fully. Lately and infrequently I have 
noticed male juncos and goldfinches 
drooping their wings in the winter 
months, for what reason it is hard to 
say. And this habit being used by 
juncos in winter is possibly ver}^ similar 
to the drooping of the robin’s wings at the 
same period. In order to find out if 
this trait is confined to one sex of robins 
and therefore of .some sexual advantage 
to that sex, I recently shot quite a num- 
ber and noticed a lot more at close 
range through a glass carefully and I 
give the results below but as these re- 
sults are rather conflicting and only ob- 
tained frotn one locality, I place little 
value in them and think it best to sub- 
mit my imperfect results to the club 
members before the opening of the mat- 
ing season so that those interested may 
pursue the subject more fully. In 
studying a species of birds sexually so 
nearly similar in plumage as the robins 
are, it is rather hard to avoid an occas- 
ional error and where I have been in 
doubt I have left the identity of the sex 
alone. 
Table of Results. 
‘WINGS 
WINGS 
WINGS 
WINGS 
SEX 
FOLDED 
DROOPED 
C 
w 
SEX 
FOLDED 
DROOPED 
c 
w 
Males. 
22 
Males. 
28 
U 
W 
xn 
Males. 
8 
Males 
16 
K 
Females. 
5 
H 
Females. 
9 
Females. 
7 
Females. 
LS 
unknown 
3 
unknown 
I 
unknown 
I 
unknown 
2 
Total. 
46 
birds. 
16 
■•30 
TOTAL 
71 
birds 
33 
38 
Sum total of 68 birds with drooping wings and 49 birds with folded wings. 
John J. Williams, Applegate, Cal. 
h'ebruary 18, 1901. 
