42 
BY THE WAYSIDE 
black and shriveled when spring comes 
•again and they fall to the ground. A 
year or so ago, one December day when 
the leaves had all fallen and left the 
beiries on the Chinaberry tress at the 
army post of San Antonio, Texas, very 
conspicious, a flock of northern robins ar¬ 
rived on their migrating Itour. They 
were very hungry after their long flight; 
and the berries looked very tempting to 
them. They knew that cherries in the 
north, even when they are still white 
and unripe, are good food for robins; 
and as they had in all probaility 
never seen Chinaberries, they proceeded 
to make a hearty meal of them. At 
the first nibble they must have known 
that they were not eating cherries, 
but as the taste was not a dis¬ 
agreeable one they kept on eating for 
some time. When they had had enough 
however and tried to fly away, they 
found much to their surprise and con¬ 
sternation, that they were unable to do 
so, and first one and then another of 
the poor little fellows fell to the ground 
helpless. They did not drop as if they 
had been shot, but came down quite 
quietly and after struggling about for 
a few moments turned over on their 
backs and stuck their little feet straight 
up in the air. Their eyes were half 
closed and they looked as if they were 
drugged or drunk, and this was really 
what had happened to them. Fortunate¬ 
ly for them, all of the birds that come 
to the government reservation are pro¬ 
tected, and more fortunate still, the 
wife of one of the officers at the Post 
was a bird lover; and soon as she saw 
the plight of the silly robins she knew 
what they had been doing and set 
about gathering them up out of harm’s 
way. In this task she was ably aided 
by her little fox terrier which she had 
taught to retrieve. This dog’s name 
was Tramp, and Tramp hunted all over 
the lawn and among the leaves for 
fallen robins. He found more than 
twenty of them, all together, and 
b: ought them in one by one to his mis¬ 
tress without hurting 'them in the least. 
As he brought them in, they were put 
into a large market basket which had 
been lined with soft cloth, and taken 
into the house. There they lay all night, 
alive but in a sort of a stupor and un¬ 
able to move. In the morning they be¬ 
gan to wake up and show signs of life, 
but they kept quiet for some time as 
if they were afraid to trust themselves, 
and I have no doubt but that they all 
had bad headaches and were very sorry 
for what they had done. As soon as they 
could fly they were taken out of doors 
once more and allowed to go free. One 
by one they flew slowly away, and it 
was noticeable that they kept well away 
from the Chinaberry trees. After a 
while they seemed to have completely 
recovered their usual spirits and were 
apparently none the worse for their ex¬ 
perience. Whether or not they had any 
bad after effects from their indiscretion, 
of course I do not know, but I am pretty 
sure that those particular robins never 
again ate of the fruit of that forbidden 
tree. 
The botanists call the Chinaberry 
trees by a very long and unpronounce¬ 
able name which is very easily for¬ 
gotten ; and the chemists have miade 
of its bark a bad tasting medicine which 
if taken in large doses by human beings, 
gives them much the same symptoms 
as the poor robins seemed to have. It 
is also known that many berries, if 
left hanging on the tree for some time 
after they are ripe, will ferment and 
form alcohol, so that perhaps the robins 
