ROBIN belongs to the thrush family; his coloring is too well known to need recounting ; his length is nine and one-half to ten inches; summer resident, everywhere abundant; migrates in March and November. Individuals may be found at times in New England and other northern sections, throughout the winter.
Range — Eastern North America to Rocky Mountains, including Mexico and Alaska. Rears three broods each season; nest made of mud, straw and string; robin is one of the most valuable of all the birds in regard to agriculture, fruit growers to the contrary, notwithstanding. The amount of insects devoured by its young in the nest has been proved by the United States Department of Agriculture to be enormous, paying many times over for the few cherries and berries to which he helps himself.
When robin lives between a row of cherry trees and a raspberry patch, he eats great numbers of maggots, thus saving three berries for every one he eats. The following is a partial list of insects devoured by our robins, the insect food constituting more than forty-two per cent of the diet. Cutworms, wireworms, hairy caterpillars, hog caterpillars, scarbaeoid beetles, curculios, click beetles, ichneumon flies, spiders, millipedes, angleworms, grasshoppers, grasshoppers' eggs, moths, etc. The following is his list of wild fruits: dogwood berries, wild grapes, green brier berries, cranberries, huckleberries, barberries, blue berries, blackberries, raspberries, service berries, hackberries, persimmons, sumach berries, etc.
In the height of the fruit season, robin has never been guilty of eating more than twenty-five per cent of cultivated fruit, for which he saved more than double that amount of fruit for the grower by destroying noxious insects.
Materials for Illustrating : In studying feathers, the different kinds may be shown by exhibiting ordinary hen feathers. Some of the children might bring these. Have the following kinds provided: the pen-like stiff feathers; the downy and hairy ones, and those that are partly downy and partly pen-like; or, to use scientific terms, respectively the pennaceous, the plumaceous, the Uloplumaceous, and the contour feathers, which are half pennaceous and half plumaceous. Provide also a stuffed robin or a picture of a robin.
Method of Presentation: Let the pupils study first the feathers which they hold. The large, pen-like feathers are studied first. Notice the central stem or shaft of the feather; it keeps the feather in shape, much as the midrib keeps the leaf in shape. (Bring this out by questions if possible.) The finer, softer parts of the feather branch from this stem.
Compare these feathers with the wing and tail feathers of a robin; why were the feathers of the wings and tail made so much longer, stiffer and stouter than those of the breast, etc.? The feathers which grow upon the wings and tail help birdie to fly; the tail feathers make a fine little rudder with which to steer.If possible, show a hen's wing with the feathers on; the wing should be outstretched. Show how the wing resists or pushes against the air. Wings are such wonderful and useful contrivances, and so simple withal, that man has tried to make a pair for his own use.
Call attention to the beauty of the wing; to its beauty of texture, its arrangement of parts, its form, its perfection of foundation lines. Did any costly fan ever fold as a wing folds, with such soft blendings of outline and hues?
Study next the feathers which are downy at the base but which have stiffer plumes at the tip, and which have a stiff or somewhat stiff central shaft. Notice a feather from the breast of a hen. See how it curves inward to fit the rounded form. This is one of the contour feathers.
Notice feathers of this kind in robin's dress; how gently and tenderly they curve to shelter that precious little breast! How protectingly they nestle upon his back, overlapping so as to make a perfect watershed. Similar but much smaller feathers of this kind crown his head and encircle his throat. When robin is singing, these throat feathers ruffle up in a fluffy bunch beautiful to see. Find the downy feathers on robin's head. Downy feathers for the most part are a sort of lining for birdie's dress.
Watch a robin move. How gracefully his dress fits him, how perfectly it adjusts itself, no matter how quickly he moves or what position he takes! How smooth and sleek and bright it always looks! (Birdies have a little bag of oil hidden just under the tail feathers; with this oil the feathers are kept fresh and bright.)
Robin's bill is in two parts; both parts are made of a bony material shielded by a tough, hard, horny outer covering. See how perfectly robin's bill is formed for seizing and holding insects and worms!
Robin's foot is formed for perching, with one hind digit, and three which turn forward. Notice joints; compare them with fingers. Watch a robin when he alights on a twig; notice how his hind toe helps him grasp the spray and balance his little body.
Robin's business is to look pretty, to make a flash of dark across the sunny lawn or orchard; to lead the bird choir with his clarionet; to tell us spring is here; to teach us a thousand thoughts of the gentle tenderness of God! These make up the poetry of his life, but robin has another and very important mission in this work-a-day world of ours. He works for us with all his might. He does more than pull up a few earthworms.
See also Robin! - Prose Poem
