Uncle Dick and Lisa's Old Time Animal Tales

Lieut. Lyle, of the United States Army, has made some interesting observations on the food of the robin. He details in the American Naturalist his experience in feeding young birds and testing their decided preference for beetles and other insects, showing that they ate seeds only when there was a lack of insects and that for every cherry or grape they eat they destroyed thousands in injurious insects. In the Springfield armory grounds twenty-three pairs of robins were known to be nesting in one month. It was estimated that, as one young robin was found to be capable of eating seventy-two large beetles in one day, it is not unreasonable to assume that each bird would destroy at least one hundred insects per day, taking them as they come, small and large. Hence the forty-six birds known to feed on these grounds and vicinity would require 4,600 insects each day, or in thirty days they would dispatch 138,000 insects.