BY THE WAY SIDE 
43 
land, Penobscot Bay, Maine, nearly 
O' half the birds have forsaken their 
sts on the rocks for sites in flat-top- 
d spruce trees and Butcher mentions 
tuk, Yol 20, p. 419) that they have 
so chosen fir trees, one nest at the 
right of 25 feet.; Director II. L. 
ard mentioned to me a similar case of 
11s taking to nesting in trees after 
>od choppers had poached for eggs on 
Mr breeding grounds. Besides these 
ids which the gulls evidently resent, 
• ■ must not forget that their young 
fe open to wholesale destruction in the 
'se of unusual storms washing the 
jsts away on all low-lying islands oc- 
pied by the gulls, when such storms 
cur in the breeding season. 
It is gratifying, then, to see more re- 
itly, other states, as Michigan ana 
w Jersey creating protected reserves 
> their breeding gulls, the reserve at 
one Harbor, Cape May County, New 
rsey, numbering some fifteen hun- 
fed birds in 1910. Why should not 
isconsin try the same scheme instead 
waiting to be one of the last ones in 
s progressive movement? Our state 
s about the eight state in date of 
ssing a good A. O. IT. law (Auk, n. s. 
1. 19, p. 37), and ought to be among 
1 first half dozen in protection of sea- 
11s, if the bird is really worth it. 
obin Redbreast a Merry Rake When He 
Winters in the South 
Exposed at last is the sinful double 
> of Cock Robin. To save him from 
ng killed while under the spell of 
; ong drink the National Association 
Audubon Societies, from its head- 
barters, at No. 1974 Broadway, re 
iitly issued an appeal to conduct a 
npaign in its efforts to snatch him 
from his folly. Hundreds of thousands 
of robins go info pies in the Southern 
states because they are so easy to get 
and in Dixie land there are no laws as 
there are in the North which restrain 
the destruction of the birds in the win¬ 
ter and in the fall. 
Why do they so easily succumb to 
trap and gin and ever ready shotgun? 
It is easy at times even to knock 
them off stumps with clubs. The robin 
in the North is the sweet-voiced har¬ 
binger of spring, lie looks as inno¬ 
cent as a choir boy and lie hops about 
on the lawns so demurely that -often 
he seems to have a halo. When he 
goes South for the winter, the robin 
goes into the pine barrens and the 
marshes. He feeds on fruits and pine 
nuts and such things and is most de¬ 
lighted with the china berry. This 
berry, as it becomes dead ripe, exudes 
a juice which within a few minutes 
will intoxicate the most level-headed 
robin that ever carolled. His head wob¬ 
bles loosely, and he staggers from side 
to side. 
Once under the spell of this potent 
juice, Robin Red Breast, Esq., becomes 
Red the hobo. He rolls in mud and 
dust until his crimson waistcoat is 
dingy. He no longer will sing, but 
splutters inarticulate cries. He never 
goes home and as likely as not the club 
claims him and he is stewed for good. 
After that he is pied and it would be 
useless for Mrs. Robin to have any bones 
to pick with him, for all that is done by 
other persons. 
In the brush or balancing on stumps, 
one may see the robins in the winter 
proclaiming the shame of their double 
