32 
ROBIN. 
flocks of robins in the neighbourhood, the sportsman heed 
only take his stand near it, load, take aim, and fire ; one 
flock succeeding another, with little interruption, almost the 
whole day: by this method, prodigious slaughter has been 
made among them with little fatigue. When berried 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 plen- 
tifully supplied with them at a cheap rate. In January, 1807, 
two young men, in one excursion after them, shot thirty 
dozen. In the midst of such devastation, which continued 
many weeks, and, by accounts, extended from Massachusetts 
to Maryland, some humane person took advantage of a cir- 
cumstance common to these birds in winter, to stop the general 
slaughter. The fruit called poke-berries ( Phytolacca decandra , 
Linn.) is a favourite repast with the robin, after they are 
mellowed by the frost. The juice of the berries is of a beau- 
tiful crimson, and they are eaten in such quantities by these 
birds, that their whole stomachs are strongly tinged with the 
same red colour. A paragraph appeared in the public papers, 
intimating, that, from the great quantities of these berries 
which the robins had fed on, they had become unwholesome, 
and even dangerous food ; and that several persons had suffered 
by eating of them. The strange appearance of the bowels of 
the birds seemed to corroborate this account. The demand 
for, and use of them, ceased almost instantly; and motives of 
self-preservation produced at once what all the pleadings of 
humanity could not effect.* When fat, they are in consi- 
* Governor Drayton, in his View of South Carolina, p. 86, observes, that 
“ the robins in winter devour the berries of the Bead tree ( Melia azedaracli) in 
such large quantities, that, after eating of them, they are observed to fall down, 
and are readily taken. This is ascribed more to distension from abundant 
eating, than from any deleterious qualities of the plant.” The fact, however, 
is, that they are literally choked, many of the berries being too large to be 
swallowed. 
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