6 THE AUDUBON BULU EMI 
The Doctor and His Patient 
By Ro) BE DELOosGr 
(Eprror’s Note.—The incidents described in this article occurred 
during one of John Burroughs’ frequent winter visits to the home 
of Dr. De Loach, then in Athens, Georgia.) 
HE Doctor in this case is no less than the great naturalist—John 
Burroughs, and the patient is Mr. Robin Redbreast. Could one 
select better representatives of their special places in life, and two 
in whom more people would be interested? The accompanying picture 
shows the doctor sitting.in an ordinary straight chair in a modern 
library, administering to his patient, perched on the back of the same 
chair. The diagnosis proved the patient to be suffering from extreme 
hunger and naturally the remedy was food and more food. 
The robin had been found at the coming of a cold winter night in an 
outside chimney corner, cuddled up close to the brick made warm by the 
fire burning on the inside. The bird was so weak that it could not escape 
and was picked up by a small six year old boy and brought inside the 
house. Mr. Burroughs through curiosity took it at once for examination. 
He went over it very carefully and found on closer i inspection that it was 
merely a clump of feathers, a very loose skin and a pack of bones. It had 
no doubt tried to make its living eating china berries and had dwindled 
to the lowest terms. Some say that a bird in that condition is drunk but 
Mr. Burroughs said it was hungry and he fully proved that his diagnosis 
was correct. The china berries have nothing in them to make birds 
drunk, and neither do they have any food value. And yet the robins will 
eat them (the hard dry skins covering the large seed) till they literally 
perish. 
In the above case the bird was found before it was too late. It re- 
mained in the library over night and when the naturalist awoke early the 
next morning he heard it chirp and he was happy for he knew that the 
bird had survived the long winter night. He felt that there was a chance 
of saving its life if he could get out with a hoe and dig up some food. In 
that section of the country angle worms could be found at almost any 
season of the year. Burroughs’ first thought was to try to find some angle 
worms. Out he goes before breakfast, yes before his morning bath, or 
before his hair had been brushed, and set to digging for bird food. Only a 
few strokes and he finds half a dozen worms. These he takes into the 
library to feed to the robin. But the robin at first did not understand all 
the excitement and the strange world in which it found itself, so the 
naturalist had a most difficult time trying to lay hands on the bird some- 
what revived by the heat of the house during the night. 
Finally the chase was over. The bird was captured, and let out some 
