282 USEFUL BIRDS. 



CHAPTER VIII. 



BIRDS OF FIELD AND GARDEN. 

 THRUSHES AND THEIR ALLIES. 



The food of Tlirushes is alluded to on p. 155, and the 

 woodland Thrushes are described on the pages following it. 



Robin. 



Planesticus migratorins migratorius. 

 Length. — Nine to ten inches. 

 Adult Male. — Above, dark gray, olive tinged, browner on wings; liead and tail 



blackisli, with wliite marks; breast ruddy, varying to bay; chin and lower 



tail coverts wliite ; throat white, with black spots. 

 Adu-lt Female. — Similar, but duller; head and breast paler. 

 Young. — Breast spotted with blackish. 



Nest. — Of grass and mud, on tree, wall, building, or bank. 

 Eggs. — Greenisli-blue ; rarely spotted. ^ 



Seaso)!. — Resident, but rarest in late December and earlj- January. 



This large Thrush was named the Robin by the early 

 settlers of Massachusetts, because it resembled somewhat in 

 color the little Red-breasted Robin of England. Ornithol- 

 ogists since then have called it 

 the Migratory Thrush and the Red- 

 breasted Tlirush, but in vain ; thus 

 custom perpetuates error. 



The Robin, as it is now called 

 everywhere, is the most generally 

 common bird in Massachusetts. Its 

 Fig. 125 -Roi)in, ai)out one- habit of foraging on the ground in 

 half natural size. gardens and lields, its fondness for 



fruit, its custom of seeking the vicinity of human dwellings, 

 lawns, gardens, and cultivated fields, all have resulted in its 

 increasing in numbers. As the forests were cleared away, 

 the planting of fruit trees furnished- it food and nesting 

 places ; and so the Robin became part and parcel of our rural 

 civilization. It nests by preference in an apple tree near 

 farm buildings, but almost any nesting site will do, from a 



