198 SINGING BIRDS. 



fond of washing, and dashes about in the water till every 

 feather appears drenched; he also, at times, basks in the 

 gravel in fine weather. His food, in confinement, is almost 

 everything vegetable except unbruised seeds, — as bread, fine 

 pastry, cakes, scalded cornmeal, fruits, particularly those which 

 are juicy, and now and then insects and minced flesh. 



The Catbird occurs regularly along the Annapolis valley in 

 Nova Scotia, and in New Brunswick between the Maine border 

 and the valley of the St. John, but it is rarely seen elsewhere in the 

 Maritime Provinces. It is fairly common near the city of Quebec, 

 and abundant about Montreal and in Ontario. 



ROBIN. 



Merula migratoria. 



Char. Above, olive gray ; head and neck darker, sometimes black ; 

 wings and tail dusky ; outer tail-feathers broadly tipped with white ; be- 

 neath, brownish red; throat white with dark streaks; under tail-coverts 

 white ; bill yellow. Length 9 to 10 inches. 



Nest. Usually in a tree, but often on fence-rail or window-ledge of 

 house or barn; a bulky but compact structure of grass, twigs, etc., 

 cemented with mud. 



Eggs. 4-5; greenish blue (occasionally speckled) ; 1.15 X 0.80. 



The familiar and welcome Robins are found in summer 

 throughout the North American continent from the desolate 

 regions of Hudson's Bay, in the 53d degree, to the tableland 

 of Mexico. In all this vast space the American Pleldfares rear 

 their young, avoiding only the warmer maritime districts, to 

 which, however, they flock for support during the inclemency 

 of winter. The Robins have no fixed time for migration, nor 

 any particular rendezvous ; they retire from the higher lati- 

 tudes only as their food begins to fail, and so leisurely and 

 desultory are their movements that they make their appear- 

 ance in straggling parties even in Massachusetts, feeding on 

 winter berries till driven to the South by deep and inundating 

 snows. At this season they swarm in the Southern States, 

 though they never move in large bodies. The holly, prinos, 



