BIRDS OF KANSAS. 653 



liquid, silvery song, that at times is uttered low and soft, but 

 always in a charming, musical flow. It sounds much like the 

 golden song of the Wood Thrush, but on a little higher key, and 

 with less compass of voice. Like all the Wood Thrushes, they 

 live largely in the lower branches of the trees and on the ground, 

 and their food habits and actions are similar. 



Their nests are built in a depression in the ground, and well 

 concealed beneath bushes or hidden among the forest plants. 

 They are quite bulky, and composed of weeds, grasses and moss, 

 and lined with a finer material of the same, and often with 

 rootlets. Eggs usually four, .86 x. 65; greenish blue; inform, 

 elongate oval. A set of four eggs, collected May 26, 1880, 

 near Digby, Nova Scotia, from a nest sunk in the ground among 

 ferns, the rim barely coming to the surface, are, in dimensions: 

 .85x.66, .86x.65, .86x65, .87x.65. 



GENUS MERULA LEACH. 



Tail about four-fifths as long as the wing, and more than three times as long 

 as the tarsus; slightly rounded. Tarsus a little longer than the commissure, ex- 

 ceeding middle toe and claw by less than the length of the latter. Third, fourth 

 and fifth quills longest, the second about equal to the sixth, never much longer 

 or shorter; third to sixth quills with outer webs sinuated. Outstretched feet 

 not reaching beyond the middle of the tail. Plumage variable, but never dis- 

 tinctly spotted beneath, except in young. Sexes sometimes very different in 

 plumage. (Ridgway.) 



Merula migratoria (LINN.). 



AMERICAN ROBIN. 

 PLATE XXXV. 



Resident; abundant in the eastern part of the State in sum- 

 mer, and along the streams in winter, where the hackberries 

 are plenty; rare at other times; not common in the western 

 portion of the State. Begin laying the last of April. 



B. 155. E. 7. C. 1. G. 6, 332. U. 761. 



HABITAT. Northern and eastern North America (replaced in 

 the western United States, east to the edge of the Great Plains, 

 by M. migratoria propinqua)', south into eastern Mexico; breed- 

 ing from near the southern borders of the United States north- 

 ward to the Arctic coast. 



