precaution in selecting a spot for its nest, for the structure is sometimes built in a very exposed
part of a tree, so that it may he seen from a distance, or it is located in the corners of rail-fences
close to a country road, or in the immediate vicinity of a dwelling. Indeed it is never much
concealed and is one of the most easily found nests. The structure is composed externally of
grass-blades, plant-stems, bark-strips, moss, and fine rootlets ; then follows a layer of mud which is
moulded into a smooth cup-shaped cavity lined with dried grasses. The eggs, numbering five
on an average, are of a uniform, rich, greenish-blue colour, without spots. Only the female sits on
the eggs, and is not fed by the male, on which account she has to leave the nest for a short time each
day to look for food. At such times the male stands guard near the nest, singing his finest melodies.
After about thirteen days brooding the young hatch, and are faithfully cared for and defended by
both parents. The first brood is usually followed by a second and further south there is often a
third, During the breeding-season the male is all vigilance and no enemy can easily succeed in
catching him off his guard. The loud and shrill warning note, which sounds sometimes like
‘ chip, chip,’ announces the stealthily approaching Cat, the Skunk snuffing about in the undergrowth,
as well as the Raccoon roaming about among the boughs, and the Hawk overhead gliding in large
circles through the air. But the Robin is not content with uttering its screaming call of distress.
It will courageously attack every intruder as soon as he approaches the nest. At the male Robin’s
alarm-note all the Robins nesting in the neighbourhood assemble to take part in the contest. They
try to frighten and defeat the enemy by screaming loudly, flittingto and fro with great rapidity,
and going through other manoeuvres. Small intruders almost always retreat quickly. While still a
small boy in my native State, Wisconsin, I remember once climbing a pine-stump about twelve feet
high to examine a Robin’s nest built on its top. While I was climbing up, the angry pair whizzed
past my face with loud screaming. The noise at once assembled two or three other pairs, and I was
soon so courageously and persistently attacked by the birds, some flying right into my face, others
whirring past loudly snapping their beaks, that I had to jump down and run off. at full speed. The
Robins which nest farthest from man are, as a rule, the most pugnacious. It is remarkable, but
easy of explanation, that one may examine a Robin’s nest in a garden without the birds being in the
least angry or uneasy. They have doubtless been convinced by experience that no one intends to
molest them.
“ Besides the cry of alarm we frequently hear other characteristic notes during the breeding-
season. 4Durick ’ and * Tuck-tuck-tuck ’ may often be heard.
“ It is during this ^season that the Robin’s truly melodious and pleasing song is loudest. A
harbinger indeed, it is the first bird to carol from the tree-tops the near arrival of the spring. The
song, though simple and modest, is not without effect at such a time in the snow-covered, sadly
silent landscape; it fills desolate nature with indescribably joyous life and gives voice to man’s
longing for the warm, soft, and mild breezes *of spring and the odor of opening flowers. The
Robin’s manner of singing is significant. While many of our birds choose a concealed bushy
spot when they sing, and moreover accompany their song with lively movements, the Robin selects
an exposed spot, usually the top of a tree, and pours forth its song for hours from this lofty perch.
It sits quietly, with its bill directed to the sky, and sings most earnestly and persistently early in
the morning, as soon as the dawn appears in the east, and in the evening long after the fading of the
bright sunset. I have heard a few sing during the hot hours of June and even of July, but this is a
departure from the rule. There is great difference in sin g e rssom e sing with such excellence that
they satisfy- even the most fastidious hearer; others again are decidedly inferior; I have observed
the finest songsters in the so-called ‘mixed woods’ of Wisconsin, where the music of the gurgling
springs and gushing brooks, and the weirdly charming whisper in the pines accompanied their songs ;
the poorest singers I have found in the monotonous ‘ black-jack ’ regions of Missouri. Many students
of bird-life, and even our great Audubon, compare the Robin’s song to that of the European
Blackbird, and maintain that the song of both birds is very similar. Judging from my own
experience, which is confined to caged Blackbirds, I would say that this is only conditionally true,
viz., so far as the voice, the note itself, is concerned. Both birds, which are very near relatives,
have a powerful and beautifully flute-like whistle, but the Blackbird’s song is more continuous, more
modulated, the Robin’s briefer, more monotonous. The Blackbird is one of the very best and most
superb of songsters, and the comparison of the two birds shows that our Robin is to be classed with
the finest of singers. What makes the song of the Robin especially valuable, is the fact that it is
uttered in the immediate neighbourhood of our rural and even city homes, where every lover of
nature can delight in it during the pleasant season of the year. The loud flute-like, highly
melodious song poured forth in magnificent maestoso involuntarily reminds one of the clear, quietly
flowing notes of a sacred song. Whenever the bird sits high aloft and sends its voice to the
distance, all the other male Robins of the neighbourhood feel duty bound to enter into competition.
Soon three, four, and even more, may be heard in loud chorus. This is usually the case during
evening twilight, and then one may hear quite a number of birds all striving to outsing one another,
while they make the surroundings echo with the powerful vibration o f their jubilant, exultant melody.
What is a northern garden without its joyful songsters, the Robins % Who can fail to love them ?
Even the farmer, i f he does not lack all sense of beauty in nature, is delighted to see a pair of these
fine, lively birds, so versed in melody, take up their home in his garden, for they belong to the first
of living beings to hail him with the greeting of morning when he enters the open air at early
dawn.
“ But the Robin is also a very useful bird. Its food consists during the greater part of the
year of insects, which are usually captured on the ground. It consumes incalculable numbers of the
very destructive cut-worms, canker-worms, beetles and their larvae, grasshoppers, borers, snails,
caterpillars, and many others. This usefulness increases as the young are hatched. Then the parents
destroy an immense number of insects, confining their attention almost entirely to those species that
do great damage to vegetation, destroying in every conceivable manner fruit-trees and ornamental
plants as well as vegetables, and working mischief which man is generally helpless to remedy.
This is likewise true of all our other small garden birds, such as the Catbirds, Thrashers, Mockingbirds,
Bluebirds, Vireos, Titmice, Warblers, Orioles, Kingbirds, and others. I f the Robin does take
a few ripe cherries and other small fruits, it is no more than just that it should receive this reward
for its usefulness. The few berries, grapes, &c. consumed by this bird are not to be compared with
the great number of insects it destroys. As it does not occur in flocks, except during migration and
in winter, it is evident that it can do but very little harm.
“ * The Robin,’ says Dr. Elliott Coues, 4 is a great eater of berries and soft fruits of every
description; and these furnish, during the colder portion of the year, its chief sustenance. Some of
the cultivated fruits of the orchard and garden are specially attractive, and no doubt the birds
demand their tithe. But the damage done in this way is trifling at most, and wholly inconsiderable
in comparison with the great benefit resulting from the destruction of noxious insects by this bird.
The prejudice which some persons entertain against the Robin is unreasonable; the wholesale
slaughter of the birds which annually takes place in many localities is as senseless as it is cruel.
Few persons have any adequate idea of the enormous—the literally incalculable—numbers of insects
that Robins eat every year. It has been found, by careful and accurate observations, that a young
Robin, in the nest, requires a daily supply of animal food equivalent to considerably more than its
own weight! When we remember that some millions o f pairs of Robins raise five or six young ones,
once, twice, or even three times a year, it will be seen that the resulting destruction of insects is, as
I have said, simply incalculable. I have no doubt that the services of these birds, during the time
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