Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Summer Robin Roosts

1890; Oxford University Press; Volume: 7; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.2307/4067557

1938-4254

Stephen Brewster,

Perhaps the greatest charm of ornithology is that its pursuit yields surprises when they are least expected.Especially true is this of the study of birds' habits, for a close watch kept on even the commoner species is sure, sooner or later, to reveal facts not in the books.Nor is this strange, for a lifetime is not long enough for fathoming all the secrets of the woods and fields immediately about one's home, while the general subject is inexhaustible.Moreover, a discovery which comes early and easily to one m:iy long elude others equally vigilant.Yet who would suspect that at this late day, there could be an unwritten page in the life history of our Robin (Mcrttla /uigratoria) , a species of unusually general distribution, abundant nearly everywhere, and probably familiar to a larger number of people than any other bird on this continent ?Nevertheless no author whom I have consulted so much as mentions the fact that Robins, while still in their summer haunts, form roosts* which are resorted to regularly night after night and season after season by hundreds or even thousands.Such gatherings, however, are by no means uncommon in Massachusetts, and they doubtless occur throughout the entire North, wherever Robins abound.Possibly they have been neglected rather than overlooked.In either case I hope to show that they are not without interest and importance.What I have to say of them proceeds chiefly from personal experience, but I have also drawn freely from the notes of Messrs. Faxon, Batchelder and Torreyf, to all of whom I am indebted for much valuable aid in the preparation of this paper.Our Massachusetts Robin roosts are invariably in low-lying woods which are usually swampy and are composed of such de-*It has been known for some time of course, that Robins form large roosts while in their winter quarters in the South, but no very exact or precise information concerning these roosts seems to have been thus far recorded.fMr.Torrey has written an article on this subject for the October issue of the .'Atlantic Monthly."It will relate, I understand, chiefly to a roost at Melrose Highlands which he has studied closely.