442 NOTES ON THE 



The eggs, from three to four in number, are a light-blue, 

 with a faint shade of green, one of which is occasionally 

 thinly spotted with rusty-brown. I do not know of their hav- 

 ing more than one brood in a season. They become quite 

 common again during September, by the general migration 

 southward, individuals not infrequently being seen as late as 

 the first of November in open autumns. 



Note. When conversing with Professor S. F. Peckham, 

 formerly on the faculty of the Minnesota State University, and 

 of late connected with the Smithsonian Institution, he spoke of 

 the nest of this species having come under his notice once in 

 Rhode Island, in open ground, and subsequently gave me a 

 written statement as follows: "The nest was on the ground 

 without protection, in a piece of old chestnut woods without 

 underbrush. Eggs, four in number, about two- thirds the size 

 of the Robin's, somewhat thicker in shape, and of a darker 

 ^reen color." 



I had the pleasure of learning from him that he had given 

 the birds of New England much study in the years gone by, 

 and was therefore speaking by the book. It was certainly a 

 very remarkable freak for the Hermit Thrush to build in such 

 a place. But most rules have their remarkable exceptions, 

 for they are of finite formulation while the Infinite fills all the 

 spans in the great viaduct of materialized truth. 



specific characters. 



Fourth quill longest; third and fourth a little shorter; second 

 about equal to sixth; about thirty hundredths of an inch shorter 

 than the longest. Tail slightly emarginate. Above light 

 olive brown, with a scarcely perceptible shade of reddish, 

 passing however into decided rufous on the rump, upper tail 

 coverts, and tail to a less degree on the outer surface of the 

 wings. Beneath white, with a scarcely appreciable shade of 

 pale buff across the forepart of the breast, and sometimes on 

 the throat; sides of throat and forepart of breast with rather 

 sharply defined subtriangular spots of dark olive brown; sides 

 of breast with paler and less distinct spots of the same. Sides 

 of body under the wings of a paler shade than the back; a 

 whitish ring around the eye; ear coverts very obscurely 

 streaked with paler. 



Length, 7.50; wing, 3.85; tail, 3.25; tarsus, 1.15. 



Habitat, eastern North America. 



MERILA MIGRATORIA (L.). (761.) 



AMERICAN ROBIN. 



Who that has watched the departure of the Robin from au- 

 tumn to autumn through successive years, and felt the relent- 

 less touch of artic frosts follow them so soon with their drift- 



