TTRDTD.E — THE THRU!^HES. 



25 



Turdus migrator ins, vai. migratorius, Lixx. 



KOBIN; AMERICAN REDBREAST. 



Turdus migratorms, Linn. S. N. r2th ed. 17(56, •292. — Sclateu, P. Z. S. 1856, 294; 



1859, 331 ; 1864, 172. — Ib. Catal. Ain. Birds, 1861, 4. — ScLATKR & Salvin, Ibis, 



1860, 396 (Coban). — BAiiiD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 218; Re.v. Am. B. 1864, 28.— 

 Cooper & Suckley, P. R. R. R. XII, ii, 1859, 172. — Dke.'^seu, Ibis, 1865, 475. 

 (Texas, winter). —Coues, Pr. A. N. S. 1866, 64 (Arizona). — Uai.l & Bannistei: 

 (Alaska). — Cooper, Birds C!al. — Samuels, 154. 



Figures: Vieillot, Ois. Am. Sejit. 11, pi. Ix, Ixi. — Wilson, Am. Oni. 1, 1808, jd. ii. — 

 Doughty, Cab. N. H. I, 1830, ]il. xii. — Audubon, Birds Am. Ill, jd. cxlii ; Oni. 

 Biog. II, pi. cxxxi. 



Sp. Char. Tail slightly rounded. Above olive-o-ray ; top and sides of the head black. 

 Chin and throat white, streaked with black. Eyelids, and a spot above the eye anteriorly, 

 white. Under, parts and inside of the wings, chestnut-brown. The under tail-coverts and 

 anal region, with tibiie, white, showing the plumbeous inner portions of the feathers. 

 Wings dark brown, the feathers all edged more or less with pale ash. Tail still darker, 

 the extreme feathers tipped with white. Bill yellow, dusky along the ridge and at the 

 tip. Length. 9.75 ; wing, 5.43 ; tail, 4.75 ; tarsus, 1.25. 



Hab. The whole of North America ; Mexico, Oaxaca, and Cordova ; Guatemala; Cuba, 

 very rare, Gundlach; Tobago, Kirk; Bermuda, Toxks; Orizaba (Alpine regions, breeding 

 abundantly), Sumiciirast. 



Young birds have trans v^erse blackish bars on the back, and blackish 

 spots beneath. The shafts of the lesser coverts are streaked with brownish- 

 yellow ; the back feathers with white. 



There are some variations, both 

 of color and proportions, between 

 eastern and western specimens of 

 the Eobin. In the latter there is 

 a tendency to a longer tail, though 

 the difference is not marked ; and, 

 as a rule, they slightly exceed east- 

 ern specimens in size. The broad 

 Avhite tip to the lateral tail-feather 

 — so conspicuous a mark of east- 

 ern birds — is scarcely to be found 

 at all in any western ones ; and in 

 the latter the black of the head 

 is very sharply defined against the 



lighter, clearer ash of the back, there hardly eNcr being a tendency in it 

 to continue backward in the form of central spots to tlie feathers, as is 

 almost constantly seen in eastern examples ; of western specimens, the 

 rufous, too, is a])preciably lighter tlian in eastern. As regards the streaks 

 on the throat, the black or the white may either largely predominate in 

 specimens from one locality. 

 4 



. Tiirr/its mis^ratnrius 



