>Carnivory in *robins*? Isn't that a sign of the coming of the Anti-Christ? ;-)
>
>Michael Price

Maybe it thought the shrew's tail was an earthworm, then just finished the
job when it discovered it wasn't. Or, more likely, robins are opportunists
like just about everyone else. The literature is full of "so-and-so eating
such-and-such" accounts, basically attesting to the fact that animals are
good at taking advantage of available, though unusual, food sources.
"Praying mantis eats hummingbird" stories abound. A Common Grackle in a
park in Pennsylvania (or was it Ohio?) specialized on small passerine
migrants. Great Egrets in the Florida Keys walk the roadsides for
racerunner lizards. According to the Guinness Book of Records, a man once
ate an airplane (I think he used a blowtorch and a blender rather than just
starting at one end and consuming it).

One of my most-loved Gary Larson cartoons was The Night of the Robin,
showing a household of terrified worms as this huge bill comes poking
through their ceiling.

Dennis Paulson, Director phone: (206) 756-3798
Slater Museum of Natural History fax: (206) 756-3352
University of Puget Sound e-mail: dpaulson at ups.edu
Tacoma, WA 98416