VIII. 



BIRD NOMENCLATURE. — SOME ENG- 

 LISH AND AMERICAN BIRDS. 



Worcester, Aug. 8, 1887. 



My dear Mr. Editor, — When our 

 forefathers settled this country they named 

 most of the birds they found here after 

 those that had been famihar to them in 

 Old England. Thus the common migra- 

 tory thrush (jTirdus migratoi'ius) they 

 named the robin, because that bird's red- 

 dish-brown breast and familiar, sociable 

 ways reminded them of the English robin 

 redbreast, that much loved bird which the 

 pathetic old ballad of " The Babes in the 

 Woods " had immortalized. The famous 

 European skylark, which has inspired so 



