JOURNAL OF PROCEEDINGS. 
151 
PROF. JENKS’S REPORT. 
Mr. President, 
It will be remembered, that at the January meeting of our Society, 1858, 
it was proposed to make the food of the Robin (Turdus migratorious, Linn.) 
a subject of special investigation throughout the year, to the end that we 
might arrive at some positive conclusion in reference to its utility to the 
horticulturist. 
As chairman of the committee appointed for the investigation, I submit¬ 
ted a report of progress in April of that year, and now beg leave to incor¬ 
porate that with the present, as our report for the entire year. 
PLAN ADOPTED FOR THE INVESTIGATION. 
First, to obtain birds at day-break, mid-day, and sunset. 
Second, to obtain birds from both the village and the country. 
Third, to preserve in alcohol the contents of each gizzard. 
RESULTS IN PROCURING SPECIMENS. 
Beginning with the first week in March, 1858, specimens have been ex¬ 
amined at least iveekhj, and most of the time daily, to December, and during 
the winter months, at least semi-monthly to thei<present date. 
RESULTS OF INVESTIGATION. 
First. Early in March, numbers of this bird made their appearance in 
this vicinity; but, until the second week in April, only the male birds. 
Second. The gizzards of those killed in the morning were, as a rule, 
either entirely empty, or but partially distended with food, ivell macerated; 
while those killed in the latter part of the day were as uniformly filled with 
food freshly taken. 
Third. From the almost daily examination of their gizzards, from the 
early part of March to the first of May, not a particle of vegetable matter 
was found in the gizzard of a single bird. On the contrary, insects in great 
variety, both as to number and kind, as well as in every variety of condition 
as to growth and development, were the sole food. 
But nine-tenths of the aggregate mass of food thus collected during this 
period consisted of one kind of larva, which, through the aid of Baron 
Ostensacken, Secretary of the Russian Legation at Washington, I was 
enabled to identify as the Bihio albipennis. Say, and whose history and 
habits, by the aid of Dr. Asa Fitch, entomologist of the New York State 
Agricultural Society, I was enabled to make out quite satisfactorily. 
