524 Birds of Colorado 



Description. — Male — Crown and sides of the head black, with a 

 little white roiind the eye and a spot of white on the lores ; rest of 

 the upper-parts slaty-olive, becoming black on the tail ; outer tail- 

 feather without or with only a narrow margin of white at the tip, 

 no regular terminal spot ; chin and throat white, the latter streaked with 

 black ; rest of the under-parts cinnamon-rufous, the centre of the 

 abdomen, anal region and under tail-coverts white and grey ; iris dark 

 brown, bill yellow, dusky at the tip, legs dark homy. Length 9-5 ; 

 wing 5-5 ; tail 4-10 ; culmen -78 ; tarsus 1-20. 



The female resembles the male, but the black feathers of the crown 

 are edged with greyish and it is smaller — wing about 5-25. Other 

 spring females, possibly birds of the previous year, have the head the 

 same colour as the upper-parts, the tail dusky not black, the cinnamon- 

 rufous of the under-parts much paler and edged with white, and the 

 bill much more dusky. In the fall a male has the upper-parts washed 

 with yeUowish-olive, conceahng the black crown ; the cinnamon of 

 the lower surface is edged with white. Young birds are dusky above, 

 with most of the feathers tipped with black, and often a subterminal 

 tip of white, giving a spotted appearance ; below whitish, becoming 

 buffy on the flanks and middle of the breast, which are profusely spotted 

 with black. 



Distribution. — Western North America, breeding from the coast 

 district of Alaska, south along the Rocky Mountains to the plateau 

 of Mexico, and westwards to the Pacific. 



The Western Robin is one of the commonest birds in Colorado. 

 Chiefly a simamer resident, it arrives from the south about the middle 

 of March, and is to be found breeding from May to July everywhere 

 from the plains up through the mountains to timber line. The greater 

 number of the birds disappear southwards in November, but a few 

 winter in sheltered places. Hersey tells me there is always a small 

 flock at Barr Lake, near Denver, through the winter ; Frey took one 

 near Salida on January 9th, while one or two can always be found 

 in Colorado Springs. They have been seen as early as February 15th 

 at Loveland (Cooke), and in the south of the State Gibnan states that 

 he has seen one on January 30th close to Fort Lewis, and others in 

 Montezuma co. in the same month. 



Habits. — The Western Robin is a familiar bird, found 

 in the vicinity of man, and seen in the suburbs of our 

 towns in considerable numbers, as well as in orchards 

 and gardens in the country. It devours large quantities 

 of earth-worms, which it tugs out of their holes, as well 

 as other destructive insects and their larvae. In the 



