AMERICAN ROBIN, OR MIGRATING THRUSH. 341 



Straw, and a mat of old grass. The eggs, about 5, are of 

 a bluish green and without spots. So nearly domestic at 

 times are their habits, that an instance is known, where 

 they successively raised two broods out of the same nest. 

 They show great affection and anxiety for the safety of 

 their young, keeping up a noisy cackling chirp when the 

 place is approached ; and they have often serious contests 

 with the piratical Cuckoo, who slily watches the absence 

 of the parents to devour their eggs. To avoid these visits 

 and the attacks of other enemies, the Robin has been 

 known to build his nest within a few yards of the black- 

 smith's anvil ; and in Portsmouth (New Hampshire) one 

 was seen to employ for the same purpose the stern timbers 

 of an unfinished vessel, in which the carpenters were con- 

 stantly at work ; the bird appearing, by this adventurous 

 association, as if conscious of the protection of so singu- 

 lar and bold a situation. I have also seen a nest of the 

 Robin bottomed with a mass of pine shavings, taken with- 

 out alarm from the bench of the carpenter. The Euro- 

 pean Thrush is sometimes equally familiar ; a pair be- 

 ing known to make a nest on a harrow, among some 

 other agricultural implements suspended on the joists of 

 a cart-shed, in which 3 men Vvere at work at the time ; 

 and here they built and reared their young in safety. In 

 this instance, the female was in such haste, that she laid 

 an egg before the finishing of the nest, and while the 

 male carried on the necessary labor for its completion ; 

 so that this singular resort had apparently been forced 

 upon the pair immediately after the loss of the object of 

 their first labor, and they now successfully threw them- 

 selves and their concerns upon the protection of the 

 human species. From the petulant and reiterated 

 chirp so commonly uttered by the Robin, when sur- 

 prised or irritated, the Indians of Hudson's Bay call 

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