THRUSHES, SOLITAIRES, BLUEBIRDS: ROBIN 565 
mulberry, which ripens earlier. “The birds’ general usefulness is such that all 
reasonable means of protecting orchard fruit should be tried before killing them” 
(Henshaw). Noxious insects comprise more than one-third of the Robin’s food 
including grasshoppers, cutworms (one stomach contained 192 small cutworms) 
and other caterpillars, bugs, codling moth larvae, and alfalfa weevils. In alfalfa 
regions in Utah, the Robin spends much of its time in spring about the borders of 
alfalfa fields, where the weevils are emerging from winter quarters. In April 
14.29 per cent of the food was alfalfa weevils, and in June, 23.77 per cent. In 
April one Robin had eaten 50 weevils, and in June one destroyed 2 adults and 253 
larvae, and another 3 adults and about 241 larvae. “Until the weevil is reduced 
in numbers the services of the Robin as a destroyer of breeding adults alone ought 
to earn for it the utmost protection” (Kalmbach). 
General Habits. —The Robin, which in the East is a familiar 
and beloved bird of the dooryard, in its western form in New Mexico 
is found largely in the mountains, although a nest was seen in Santa 
Fe and it nests freely in Albuquerque, where its cheery song and 
friendly ways can be enjoyed to the full. When seen only in passing, 
however, as it is by the field worker in the mountains, it is still a 
pleasure to meet it. 
In 1903, we were fortunate enough to find it at various points 
from Pecos to the foot of Pecos Baldy, from 7,000 to 11,600 feet. At 
8,000 feet, on July 15, we found young being fed out of the nest, and 
the next day a pair just about finishing a nest, while three thousand 
feet higher, a week later we found a nest with eggs. At 11,600 feet, 
on August 16, we saw an old bird that had molted its tail, unless, as 
sometimes happens, it had had a narrow escape. 
In 1904, at timberline on Wheeler Peak, Robins were seen on 
July 24 in the timber and hopping over the wide grassy slopes; also in 
the creek basin at 12,700 feet, with those birds of the highlands, the 
Pipits. On the mesa above Hondo Canyon, August 12, we saw a 
number of Robins, some of them eating chokecherries. On August 
18, a flock was seen in the tree tops at La Belle, at about 10,000 feet. 
On September 26, on the Chama River, they were seen in the junipers, 
presumably eating the ripe juniper berries. On October 1, at the 
Burford Lakes, a large flock came into the cottonwoods close to our 
camp. 
In 1906, as we journeyed along, in Valle Santa Rosa two were seen 
on September 7. In Largo Canyon, October 2 and 3, only a few were 
heard, but on the morning of October 4, in the cottonwoods of the 
canyon, there was a beautiful sunrise chorus that sounded like spring, 
and apparently came from birds that had arrived in the night. The 
following night there was a severe frost ice formed on the watei 
pails after they were filled at daylight there was no chorus, and 
apparently few Robins were left. On October 8, some were noted in 
the yellow pines at about 8,000 feet, a few miles north of Gallo Spring, 
