The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1881-06-23
Robins and Strawberries.
An Essay on the Predatory Habits of the
Red-Breasted Innocent Who Is
Good for Pie.
Charles Dudley Warner.


The robin gets its name from its relation 10
the strawberry bed We believe that natural
lists and philologists are agreed upon this point.
Some very earnest champions, not only of the
theory OF design in everything, but also Of
mans ability to discover every time what the
design is. contend that the red breast OF the
bird is given it as o protection, like the white
Of the snow ptarmigan or the autumn brown of
the partridge, so that when at work among the
red berries its color will prevent its detection.
This works up neatly, but we doubt It, 1t Is
the theory of the philosopher in his closet not
OF the gardener in his paradise. The fact is
there is a certain prsviousness in the tompera-
ment of the bird that prevents it from waiting
for the red berries, which has a tendency to
weaken this otherwise clever conclusion. The
owner OF the strawberry plants, as the crop ap.
proaches maturity, surveys the bed with no lit.
tie pride, notes the earliest and most promising
plants, and decides that the next day he will
pick cupful for taste. But that very day
the robin drops down among the immature
fruit, regardless of any question OF the fitness
of colors, and clears off everything that has any
show of ripening about it. If the supply is q
trife scant he cuts off some entirely hard ones
and throws them about .just for green's" as
they say. On the other hand, if the supply Is
too liberal, after he has eaten his fill he goes
about puncturing the rest, slashing them to
pieces with his beak.
On the first day this is disappointment to
the cultivator; by the third day it is real an
nOyance; on toward the middle of the second
week it is an unbearable outrage, and he buys
o shad net for protection. A shad net is very
different from robin. A robin takes only the
strawberry, whereas the shad net will take ey-
erything. Before you get it all spread out 1t
has caught around Contributions, sleeve-buttons,
scarf-pin, shoe buttons, and anything else it
can grab, and the first result of your expert
ment is to find yourself considerably involved,
as they say when man runs away. In this
case, however, you are SO involved that there
is no running. When 1t is unwound, you final
ly do spread the net over your plants prepara-
tory to stretching it on frame. 1t settles quiz
city down and the work is about done. At last
you give 1t hearty pull and lift the net off the
ground. 1t comes, but it still has the same
characteristics that made it grab every button
you had In each mesh is either a blossom or
berry. Thinking they will shake out you
pull still harder. Suddenly they start and be-
fore you realize it, you have stripped the whole
of them off your vines. There they lie, from
cleaned right off. Thus the net is more thor
ough than the robin, but they each work to the
same result.
For US in the city, therefore, 1t is choice of
evils. Ii we insist upon pretending to raise
berries, we must decide between cultivating
shad nets or robins. The berry business is a
mere disguise for these other industries. There
are reasons why it is better to let the net alone
and attend only to robins. The former are
rather rank in flavor. The more you handle
them the more the unpleasant side of the fish
business suggests itself. Not so the robin. 1t
is real delicacy. The thing to do Is to real
ize the true worth of the bird. We must dis
pose OF sentiment as the robin does of the ber-
ries- swallow it. The fact is that there is
nothing better on the table than a good,
plump robin, and there is no reason why we
should rebel against killing robins, then tele-
phone to the market for pair of "broiler''
chickens. A birds bird for all o. that. We
must come to regard the berry crop as means
to an end. 1t is likesgrain on stock farm 1t
fattens the animals. That is the whole Of it.
There is no call to worry about lost fruit II
only by-the-bye we rejoice over birds that ore
gathered. The time will come when people
will realize this and one robin pot-pie will
balance good many lost strawberry short
cakes. So long as we try to raise trees and
birds and berries, one of the crops is doomed
to fail. Our duty is to harvestxwhat Is left.