Western Robin 52S 



quickly completed ; one begun on June 6th was finished 

 on the 13th, and the first clutch of eggs laid by the 18th. 

 The eggs, nearly always four in number, are bright 

 greenish-blue, and imspotted, and average about "90 x '67. 

 This bird generally returns to the same spot every 

 year, sometimes repairing an old nest, sometimes build- 

 ing a fresh one close by. Gale also found a very large 

 number of deserted nests, sometimes with a full com- 

 plement of eggs. He believed that some of these were 

 due to the mischievous procHvities of Jays, but he also 

 suggested that, as the bird is a rather late migrant and 

 the females arrive first, it was perhaps possible that 

 they at once set to work to build nests and lay sterile 

 eggs, and that after the arrival of the males fresh nests 

 were made and the sterile eggs deserted. Gale found fresh 

 eggs between June 10th and July 10th, and his obser- 

 vations agree very well with those of other naturalists. 



Genus PLANESTICUS. 



Rather large Thrashes resembling Hylocichla, but with a longer 

 tail, which is always more than three times the length of the tarsus, 

 and with the lower parts not spotted though the tluroat is streaked. 



A large genus of nearly cosmopolitan distribution, with one species 

 in the United States separated into an eastern and western subspecific 

 form. The eastern race has a distinct white tip to the outer tail- 

 feather, absent in the western race. The Colorado Robins are many 

 of them somewhat intermediate in character, but on the whole seem 

 closer to the western subspecies. 



Western Robin. Planesticus migratorius propinquus. 



A.O.U. Checklist no 761a — Colorado Records — Say 23, Vol., ii., 

 p. 17 ; Allen 72, pp. 147, 155, 161, 173 ; Aiken 72, p. 193 ; Trippe 74, 

 p. 228 ; Henshaw 75, p. 143 ; Scott 79, p. 91 ; Tresz 81, p. 282 ; Drew 

 81, p. 85 ; 85, p. 15 ; Allen & Brewster 83, p. 152 ; Beckham 85, p. 140 ; 

 87, p. 125 ; Morrison 86, p. 153 ; 88, p. 70 ; Kellogg 90, p. 90 ; Lowe 

 94, p. 270; McGregor 97, p. 39 ; Cooke 97, pp. 18, 126, 223 ; Keyser 

 02, p. 31 ; Dille 03, p. 74 ; Henderson 03, p. 237 ; 09, p. 242 ; Warren 

 06, p. 24 ; 08, p. 26 ; 09, p. 17 ; Oilman 07, p. 195 ; Markman 07, p. 158 ; 

 Rockwell 08, p. 180 ; Bergtold 09, p. 196. 



