The robin (fig. 21) is found throughout the United States east of the Great Plains, and is represented farther west by a slightly different subspecies. It extends far north through Canada, and is found even in Alaska. Although the great bulk of the species leaves the Northern States in winter, a few individuals remain in sheltered swamps, where wild berries furnish an abundant supply of food. The robin builds its nest in orchards and gardens, and occasionally takes advantage of a nook about the house, or under the shelter of the roof of a shed or outbuilding. Its food habits have sometimes caused apprehension to the fruit grower, for it is fond of cherries and other small fruits, particularly the earlier varieties. For this reason many complaints have been lodged against it, and some persons have gone so far as to condemn the bird. The robin is, however, too valuable to be exterminated, and choice fruit can be readily protected from its depredations. [Illustration: Fig. 21.--Robin.] An examination of 330 stomachs shows that over 42 per cent of its food is animal matter, principally insects, while the remainder is made up largely of small fruits or berries. Over 19 per cent consists of beetles, about one-third of which are useful ground beetles, taken mostly in spring and fall, when other insects are scarce. Grasshoppers makeup about one-tenth of the whole food, but in August comprise over 30 per cent. Caterpillars form about G per cent, while the rest of the animal food, about 7 per cent, is made up of various insects, with a few spiders, snails, and angle-worms. All the grasshoppers, caterpillars, and bugs, with in large portion of the beetles, are injurious, and it is safe to say that noxious insects comprise more than one-third of the robin's food. Vegetable food forms nearly 58 per cent of the stomach contents, over 47 being wild fruits, and only a little more than 4 per cent being possibly cultivated varieties. Cultivated fruit amounting to about 25 per cent was found in the stomachs in June and July, but only a trifle in August. Wild fruit, on the contrary, is eaten in every month, and constitutes a staple food during half the year. No less than forty-one species were identified in the stomachs of these, the most important were four species of dogwood, three of wild cherries, three of wild grapes, four of greenbriar, two of holly, two of elder; and cranberries, huckleberries, blueberries, barberries, service berries, cranberries, and persimmons, with four species of sumac, and various other seeds not strictly fruit.