4 
FARMERS* BULLETIN 630. 
the stomachs in June and July, but only a trifle in August. Wild fruit, on the 
contrary, is eaten every month and constitutes a staple food during half the 
year. No less than G5 species of fruit were identified in the stomachs; of these, 
the most important were 4 species of dogwood, 3 of wild cherries, 3 of wild 
grapes, 4 of greenbrier, 2 of holly, 2 of elder; and cranberries, huckleberries, 
blueberries, barberries, service berries, hackberries, and persimmons; together 
with 4 species of sumac and various other seeds not strictly fruit. 
The depredations of the robin seem to be confined to the smaller and earlier 
fruits, few, if any, complaints being made that it eats apples, peaches, pears, 
grapes, or even late cherries. By the time these are ripe the forests and hedges 
are teeming with wild fruits which the bird evidently finds more to its taste. 
The cherry, unfortunately lor man, ripens so early that it is almost the only 
fruit accessible at a time when the bird’s appetite has been sharpened by a 
long-continued diet of insects, earthworms, and dried berries, and it is no 
wonder that at first the rich juicy morsels are greedily eaten. 
While the robin takes some cultivated fruits, it must be remembered that, 
being a natural enemy of the insect world, it has been working during the 
whole season to make that crop a possibility, and when the fruit ripens the 
robin already has a standing account with the farmer for services rendered, 
with the credits up to this time entirely on his side. 
Since the robin takes ten times as much wild as cultivated fruit, it seems 
unwise to destroy the birds to save so little. Nor is this necessary, for with 
care both birds and fruit may be preserved. Where much fruit is grown it is 
no great loss to give up one tree to the birds, and in some cases the crop can 
be protected by scarecrows. Where wild fruit is not abundant, a few fruit¬ 
bearing shrubs and vines judiciously planted will serve for ornament and 
provide food for the birds. The Russian mulberry is a vigorous grower and a 
profuse bearer, ripening at the same time as the cherry. So far as observation 
lias gone, most birds seem to prefer its fruit to any other. It is believed that 
a number of mulberry trees planted around the garden or orchard would fully 
protect the more valuable fruits. 
Much has been written about the delicate discrimination of birds for choice 
fruit and their selection of only the finest and costliest varieties. This is con¬ 
trary to observed facts. Birds, unlike human beings, seem to prefer fruit that, 
like the mulberry, is sweetly insipid, or that, like the chokecherry or holly, 
has some astringent or bitter quality. The so-called black alder, a species of 
holly, has bright scarlet berries tasting as bitter as quinine, that ripen late in 
October and remain on the bushes through November. Though frost grapes, 
the fruit of the Virginia creeper, and several species of dogwood are abundant 
at the same time, the birds have been found to eat the berries of the holly to 
a considerable extent. It is, moreover, a remarkable fact that the wild fruits 
upon which birds largely feed are those which man neither gathers for his 
own use nor adopts for cultivation. 
THE TITMICE. 
Birds of the titmouse family, though insignificant in size, are far from being 
so in the matter of food habits. What they lack in size of body they more than 
make up in numbers of individuals. While in the case of some larger birds, as, 
for instance, the flicker, there is one pair of eyes to look for food for one large 
stomach, we have in the case of the ten times as numerous titmice an equivalent 
stomach capacity divided into 10 parts, each furnished with a pair of eyes and 
other accessories, as wings and feet. As against the one place occupied by the 
larger bird, 10 are being searched for food at the same time by the smaller 
species. 
The character of the food of titmice gives a peculiar value to their services, 
for it consists largely of the small insects and their eggs that wholly escape 
the search of larger birds. Throughout the year most of the species of this 
group remain on their range, so that they are constantly engaged in their bene¬ 
ficial work, continuing it in winter when the majority of their co-workers have 
sought a milder clime. It is at this season that the titmice do their greatest 
good, for when flying and crawling insects are no more to be found, the birds 
must feed upon sucb species as they find hibernating in crevices, or upon the 
eggs of insects laid in similar places. In winter’s dearth of moving insects 
the search for such animal food as may be found is perforce thorough and 
unremitting. 
