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154 ORNITHOLOGY AND OOLOGY. 
and the Zurdus alicie are the same. In a conversation with 
Professor Baird, since the issue of Allen’s paper, I was in- 
formed, that, in a large suite of specimens of both species, 
to which he had access, he could identify each by character- 
istics so fixed that any confusion was impossible: he was 
of the opinion that Mr. Allen had not seen the bird he calls 
alicie. I have therefore not given that species as a bird of 
New England, and think that it yet remains to be proved as 
such. 
Dr. Bryant, in describing the habits of the Olive-backed 
Thrush, says : — 
“Tts note differs entirely from that of Z. pallasit, and the birds 
also differ very much in their habits; the latter species being gen- 
erally seen on the ground, while the Olive-backed Thrush prefers 
to procure its food among the branches. The one seen at Big Mud 
Lake, Grand Manan, was perched on the top of a small dwarf-fir, 
and was hunting the passing insects with all the dexterity of a 
typical Flycatcher.” 
TURDUS MIGRATORIUS. — Linnaeus. 
The Robin. 
Turdus migratorius, Linneus. Syst. Nat., I. (1766) 292. Wilson, Am. Orn., I. 
(1808) 35. Aud. Orn. Biog., II. (1884) 190. 
Merula migratoria, Sw. and Rich. Fauna Bor. Amer., II. (1881) 176. 
DESCRIPTION. 
Third and fourth quills about equal, fifth a little shorter, second longer than 
sixth; tail slightly rounded; above olive-gray, top and sides of the head black; 
chin and throat white, streaked with black; eyelids, and a spot above the eye an- 
teriorly, white; under parts and inside of the wings chestnut-brown; the under tail 
coverts and anal region with tibiz 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, nine and seventy-five one-hundredths inches; wing, five and forty-three 
one-hundredths; tail, four and seventy-five one-hundredths inches; tarsus, one and 
twenty-five one-hundredths. 
Hab. — Continent of North America to Mexico. 
It is very seldom that specimens exhibit the colors exactly as described. Nearly 
always in winter, and in most cases at other times, the rufous feathers are margined 
with whitish, sometimes quite obscuring the color. The black feathers of the head, 
