Birds of Oregon and Washington 39 



Under parts : rufous or reddish. 

 Length: 10.5 inches. 

 Found in open country and orchards. 



" Everybody knows the Robin," you will say. 

 " Why trouble to tell us anything about him ? " 

 Do you really know much about him ? Are you 

 sure you know his song ? Not if you think all 

 Robins sing alike. They do not, any more than 

 all people who sing, sing alike. If you listen to 

 the several Robins that you may hear upon some 

 fine morning, notice how their voices are like 

 human voices, in that some are sweeter, far 

 sweeter, than others. The Robin belongs to the 

 Thrush family, and sometimes one gives us what 

 you may recognize for its peculiarly enchanting 

 quality — a Thrush-song. The Robin is a " com- 

 mon " bird, but he is like children — not to be 

 despised on that account. The farmers some- 

 times hate him and kill him as an enemy, being 

 unwilling to allow him the comparatively small 

 pay he asks for the unmeasured good he does 

 them in the quantities of harmful worms he de- 

 vours. A pair of Robins sometimes take more 

 than one hundred cut-worms in a day for them- 

 selves and their young. 



