Everybody knows and likes ROBINS. 

 They are desirable birds in every re- 

 spect, — handsome in plumage, sweet 

 songsters and valuable not only be- 

 cause of the good cheer their presence 

 carries with it but because they destroy 

 quantities of insects that are destruc- 

 tive to our crops, our trees and our 

 lawns. In reality they are not Robins 

 at all for the Robins are only Old World 

 birds, but they properly belong to the 

 Thrush family. 



They are really to be classed as mi- 

 grants although a few of them remain 

 here throughout the winter. In March, 

 they again come in numbers, frequent- 

 ing our lawns, shade trees, roadsides 

 and orchards. 



Who lias not watclied a pair of these 

 favorites racing over the sward, eacli 

 alternately running a few steps then 

 pausing to listen; every few minutes, 

 one will hesitate, peck sharply at the 

 ground and bring fortli a long angle- 

 worm. Robin nests are mud and grass 

 affairs placed usually on limbs or in 

 crotclies of trees rarely on fence posts, 

 porches or otlier unusual places. 



Included in the Thrush Family are some of our very 

 sweetest songsters, such as the Robin, the Hermit and Wood 

 Thrushes. All birds of this family are quite remarkable 

 because their young in the first plumage have their breasts 

 spotted with blackish and their backs marked with whitish, 

 even though those of their parents are plain. All our east- 

 ern thrushes agree, too, in that their eggs are some shade 

 of blue, usually unmarked. 



Although a few BLUEBIRDS pass the winter in the 

 state, chiefly in warm swamps, they are usually regarded 

 as migrants and their return in spring is eagerly awaited. 

 They come the latter part of February and their cheery 

 warbles greet us from orchard and roadside. As Bur- 

 roughs, in his charming manner, explains in "Wake Robin": 

 — "When Nature made the Bluebird she wished to propi- 

 tiate both the sky and the earth, so she gave him the color 

 of one on his back and the hue of the other on his breast, 

 and ordained that his appearance in spring should denote 

 that the strife and war between these two elements was at 

 an end. He is the peace-harbinger; in him the celestial and 

 terrestrial strike hands and are fast friends." 



Cavities in trees or posts furnish suitable home sites 



