154 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
Seventh. During the month of October the vegetable diet is wholly dis¬ 
carded, and its place supplied by grasshoppers and orthopterous insects 
generally. 
Eighth. Early in November the robin migrates southward—the few re¬ 
maining eking out a miserable existence, during the winter months, on 
bayberries (Myrica cerifera), privet berries (Ligustrum vulgare), and juniper 
berries (Juniperus communis.) 
Having entered upon this investigation unprejudiced, I have only sought 
for the facts as observation should develop them, and these are the results 
to which I have arrived at no small expenditure of time and labor. In this 
investigation I have been entirely unaided beyond the assistance of my 
pupils in procuring specimens, except by Mr. E. W. Dickerson of Plymp- 
ton, who kindly obtained and examined a few individuals, and the valuable 
assistance of Baron Ostensacken and Dr. Fitch, already alluded to in this 
paper. I do not, however, feel satisfied to present this as a final report, 
intending, on my return from Europe in September, to subject the contents 
of my vials to a critical microscopic examination, that I may, if possible, 
identify every species of both insects and vegetables. To aid me in this 
more specific portion of my labor, I hope to make the personal acquaintance 
of M. Florent Prevost, Naturalist to the Museum of Natural History in 
Paris, who has made the alimentation of birds a careful study, and recently 
presented his first memoir to the Imperial and Central Society of Agricul¬ 
ture in France, for which he was awarded a gold medal, and from which 
fact I infer the great interest the subject is awakening on the other side of 
the water. All of which is respectfully submitted. 
J. W. P. JENKS, Chairman. 
Middlehoro', Mass., March 5, 1859, 
