THE AMERICAN ROBIN 



Called also: Red-breasted Thrush; Migratory 

 Thrush; Robin Redbreast 



TT IS only when he is a baby that you 

 '*' could guess our robin is really a thrush, 

 for then the dark speckles on his plump little 

 yellowish-white breast are prominent thrush- 

 like markings, which gradually fade, however, 

 as he grows old enough to put on a brick-red 

 vest Hke his father's. 



The European Cock Robin — a bird as familiar 

 to you as our own, no doubt, because it was he 

 who was killed by the Sparrow with the bow 

 and arrow, you well remember, and it was he 

 who covered the poor Babes in the Wood with 

 leaves — ^is much smaller than our robin, even 

 smaller than a sparrow, and he is not a thrush 

 at all. But this hero of the story books has a 

 red breast, and the English colonists, who settled 

 this country, named our big, cheerful, lusty 

 bird neighbour a robin, simply because his red 

 breast reminded them of the wee little bird at 

 home that they had loved when they were 

 children. 



When our American robin comes out of the 



5 



