THE AMERICAN ROBIN AND HIS CONGENERS, jj 



Sonq-Thkush. 



latitude 71° beyond the forest limit. The red-wing winters in 

 southern and western Europe and the British Islands. 



The blue-backed thrush, or "field-fare/' has a range some- 

 what similar with the above species; Asiatic individuals mi- 

 grating in winter to Cashmere, Turkistan, and the northwestern 

 portion of India. The missel-thrush breeds throughout central 

 ■Europe, ranging eastward to 

 the northwestern slopes of the 

 Himalayas. In such a mild cli- 

 mate as Great Britain offers, he 

 remains the year round, but the 

 majority of individuals winter 

 in southern Europe, Persia, and 

 North Africa. The song-thrush 

 is another palsearctic form, 

 breeding eastward to the Yeni- 

 sei Valley, and in Norway wan- 

 dering beyond the Arctic Cir- 

 cle. He has a near relative in- 

 habiting northern and western 

 China, known as Pere David's 



thrush, in honor of a good monk who devoted much time to 

 the study of ornithology. 



There are two spotted-breasted thrushes restricted each to a 

 certain island, and found nowhere else : the Anjuan thrush, in- 

 habiting one of the islands of the Comoro group, lying between 

 Madagascar and the African coast ; and the St. Thomas thrush, 

 from the island of that name, in the Gulf of Guinea. 



In the New World the nearctic, or North American region, 

 possesses several species of spotted-breasted thrushes breeding 

 throughout its forest area. Notable among these are the wood- 

 thrush, whose mellow, rippling music we know and love so 

 well ; the hermit, the olive-backed, the gray-cheeked, and tawny 

 thrushes — spring and fall migrants passing through our woods 

 in May and October. 



In contrast to the spotted-breasted species, there are a num- 

 ber of thrushes, and among them the robin, which are solidly 

 colored underneath, a few spots being confined to the throat. 

 This difference in color-pattern has undoubtedly arisen far back 

 in the history of the group from some environing influence. 

 The young of these solid-colored thrushes are all spotted like 

 the rest, and, since the young of all animals tend to revert 

 toward ancestral forms and conditions, the spotted-breasted spe- 

 cies may be looked upon as representing the more primitive 

 type of thrush. A further proof of this is found in the two 

 spotted - breasted thrushes inhabiting the islands above men- 



