Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1904-04-29

That the robin is very beneficial
bird there is no doubt, although it is
claimed by some persons, especially
small fruit growers, that it eats culti-
waited fruit TO an injurious extert. This
charge, the evidence shows, is confined
to special localities and to a very linn
tied period and is not at all general.
The table of food for the year shows
that cultivated fruit is only eaten to
any serious extent during the months
of June and July, when it amounts to
80 per cent; however. during the same
months the insect food amounts to over
46 per cent, thus showing the benefit
to largely exceed the damage. The
cultivated fruit eaten in the month of
December was necessarily waste fruit
that was left on trees or vines as worth
less. In the Southern country where
the robin receives no protection what
ever. it can not be clamed that it eats
cultivated fruit as the bird is not resi-
dent there except in the winter, when
fruit is rot in season.
The horticulturiSt can protect his
small fruit crops by growing few wild
fruits for the robins and the cultivated
kinds will not be disturbed; but thou
sands of injurious insects will be eaten
that would otherwise be pest.
a careful study of the food tables ab-
straoted from data furnished by the
biological Survey, United States De-
partment of Agriculture, ought surely
to convince everyone that the robin is
a very valuable aid to the agriculture
ist and therefore ought to be cGreflIy
protected The $50 stomachs examined
were collected in the territory between
| Massachusetts and Kansas. and Can
ada and the Gulf States. excepting
| few from California. The contents,
therefore, must show in a fairly con-
elusive manner the food that the robin
eats during the year. The wild fruit
that the robin eats does not effect the
relation Of the bird to man either way;
| it is simply one Of the methods that
Nature provides to distribute seeds of
plants.
An analysis of the A per cent. of the
robins food consisting of insects is not
only of interest, but is instructive, as it
serves to show that during the whole
wear the average is well Kept up.
Beetles of various kinds (Coleoptera'
form nearly 10 per cent. of the food for
| the year, in May reaching a maximum
| OF over So per cent, which is largely OF
May beetles Hachnosternn. Tttre
are over sixty species Of this genius in
the United States, all of which are
harmful. The adults sometimes conf
pletely defoliage small trees and do
great harm to large Oies. The larvae
| of these beetles are known as white
! eruibs', and are often great pests. es-
pecially i'm strawberry plantations and
| in pastures, where they destroy the
roots of the grasses. Grasshoppers and
crickets (Orthoptera) are also eaten to
| a considerable extent, over 9 per cent.
being the average for the year; in Au-
gust they comprise over 80 per cent. of
the food. Both of these classes of in
! sects are serious pests. and any bird
| that DESTROYS them is too valuable to
kill.
The other II per cent. Of the insect
food consists Of moths and butterflies
U.epidoptera). bees, wasps and ants
(Hymenoptera). bugs, aphids (Hemip-
tera). eNr. Many larvae of the Owlet-
moths (Noctuidae) are eaten. family
which includes caterpillars so well
known and dreaded by the name Of
"cutworms." One robin had no less
than 40 army worms in its stomach and
another contained 12o March flies
Uiibio) Some of these latter destroy
the roots of growing plants. especially
grass The wise farmer ana plantatlon
owner will use every means IN lbs
power TO encourage the robin to remain
on his premises, for by SO doing
myriads of noxious insects Will be
destroyed.