102 THE ROBIN. 



tise having been enlarged by decay. The nest was neatly 

 made of dried grasses, and the five eggs were real gems. 

 Incubation lasted about ten days. Another nest was made 

 in the tool-box of a reaper, which had been left in the 

 field from Saturday till Thursday, the lid of the box having 

 been kept open by the handle of a wrench. The nest had 

 been built in this short time, and one ^^^ had been laid. 



After incubation is begun the male becomes almost silent, 

 and remains so during the summer. Some time in Novem- 

 ber the family groups leave for the south, having then a 

 single plaintive note, wholly unlike the warble of spring, 

 and quite as well in keeping with the gloom of autumn. 

 The plumage now, too, is more or less mixed with a cold gray, 

 thus making the harmony with the bleakness of nature the 

 more perfect. 



The Bluebird spends the winter in the Southern States, 

 sometimes going even further south; and in its northern 

 migrations goes scarcely beyond New England, in the 

 northern part of which it already becomes uncommon. 



From the eastern foot-hills of the Rocky Mountains west- 

 ward to the Pacific are two closely-allied species called the 

 Western Bluebird and the Rocky Mountain Bluebird, the 

 latter being more common in the mountainous region indi- 

 cated by its name. The former has the throat-blue, and a 

 chestnut spot on the back; the latter, which is of a greenish 

 shade, has the under parts similar to the upper, only lighter, 

 fading into white on the belly. 



THE ROBIN. 



On this same 3d of March, so full of brightness and 

 warmth, I meet the first Robins of the year. I hear their 

 abrupt, vigorous, clear note before I see them. This note, 

 though resembling that of various Thrushes, has a ring all 



