XCI 



AMEKICAN EOBIN 

 761. Planesticus migratorius migratorius 



"I saw a Eobin today," is often the glad message 

 with which our friends and neighbors announce that the 

 backbone of winter is broken and that spring is here ; and 

 our little red-breasted feathered friend rarely brings 

 false tidings. It comes unannounced, just as an old 

 friend would do. The first you hear of the Eobin is its 

 song from a limb of a tree in your front yard, or, per- 

 chance, you see the bird walking across your lawn as 

 though it had returned to take charge of your bird affairs 

 for the season. Watch it as it runs a few feet, then stops 

 to look at you, as if to say, ''Don't you remember me! 

 I was here last year and pulled many an angleworm 

 from this very lawn, and that, too, while you were water- 

 ing the grass. Now, I know you must surely remember 

 me, and we are going to work together another season." 

 And you do. 



The Eobin does not return to us in early spring, ex- 

 hausted by a long and hurried flight; its short north- 

 ward journey is made in easy stages, just in the fresh 

 footsteps of the departing winter. 



Of all our broadly distributed birds the Eobin prob- 

 ably holds first place ; it is therefore the best-known bird. 

 I have even found it nesting in northern British Colum- 

 bia, far from human habitations; but from preference 

 it selects the more settled parts of the country and the 

 closer it is to a well-watered lawn or golf putting green, 

 the more contented the bird is. There it finds an abun- 

 dance of angleworms and also protection from most ene- 

 mies, but not from the cursed house cat. (Fig. 140.) 



I have found the Eobin nesting in remote mountain 

 ranges, where it was more shy than elsewhere. There it 

 drew no safety zone but looked upon all strange objects 

 as enemies and acted accordingly. In wild, unsettled 

 localities, however, it ceases to be the pugnacious de- 

 fender of its household but submits meekly, without a 



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