NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



SOS 



T61. ROBIN (From Beal.) 



761a. WESTERN ROBIN. Mcrula miyratoria propinqua Ridgw. Geog. Dist. 

 Western United States east to and including Rocky Mountains, south into Mexico. 



The general habits, nesting and eggs of this Western form of the Robin are like 

 those of the Eastern species. Mr. Walter E. Bryant notes a pair of these birds that 

 nested and reared a brood in a hanging basket suspended from the edge of a veranda 

 at the residence of Mr. H. G. Parker at Carson, Nevada. 



762. ST. LUCAS ROBIN. Merula con finis Baird. Geog. Dist. Cape region o* 

 Lower California; accidental at Hayward, California. 



This is a distinct species inhabiting the cape region of Lower California. The 

 adult bird resembles a young robin. The eggs are unknown. 



763. VARIED THRUSH. Hcsperocichla nccvia (Gmel.) Geog. Dist. Western- 

 North America, chiefly near the Pacific coast, from California to Bering Strait. 

 Breeds chiefly north of the United States; east casually to New Jersey, Long Island 

 and Massachusetts. 



In various parts of Alaska this is a common breeding bird. A few are known to 

 breed in the spruce forests of Washington, but their breeding grounds are chiefly 

 north of the United States. According to Dr. Brewer, Mr. W. H. Dall furnished the 

 first authentic knowledge concerning the nest and eggs of the Varied Robin as he 

 found them in Alaska. The nest found by him was built in a willow bush, about 

 two feet from the ground, and upon the top of a large mass of rubbish lodged there by 

 some previous inundation. It measures six inches in diameter with a depth of two 

 and one-half inches. It has but a very slight depression, apparently not more than 

 half an inch in depth. The original shape of the nest had, however, been somewhat 

 flattened in transportation. The materials of which it was composed were fine dry 

 mosses and lichens impacted together, intermingled with fragments of dry stems of 

 grasses. Other nests of the same species were met with in several places between 

 Fort Yukon and Nulato, always on or near a river bank and in low secluded localities.. 



