^^•2 



USEFUL BIRDS. 



CHAPTER VIII. 



BIRDS OF FIELD AND GARDEN. 

 THRUSHES AND THEIR ALLIES. 



The food of Thrushes is alhided to on p. 155, and the 

 woodland Thrushes are described on the pages foUowins^ it. 



Robin. 



Planestictis viigratorius migratorins. 

 Length. — Nine to ten inches. 

 Adult Male. — Above, dark gray, olive tinged, browner on wings; liead and tail 



blackish, with white marks: breast ruddy, vaiying to bay; chin and lower 



tail coverts white; throat white, with black s^jots. 

 Adult Female. — Similar, but duller; head and breast jialer. 

 Young. — Bi-east spotted with blackish. 



liest. — Of grass and mud, on tree, wall, building, or bank. 

 Eggs. — Greenish-blue ; rarely spotted. 

 Season. — Resident, but rarest in late December and early January. 



This large Thrush was named the Robin by the early 

 settlers of Massachusetts, because it resembled somewhat in 

 color the little Red-breasted Robin of England. Ornithol- 

 ogists since then have called it 

 the Migratory Thrush and the Red- 

 breasted Tlirush, but in vain ; thus 

 custom perpetuates error. 



The Robin, as it is now called 

 everywhere, is the most generally 

 common bird in Massachusetts. Its 



Fig. 125 —Robin, about one 

 half natural size. 



habit of forao-ino- on the ground in 



gardens and fields, its fondness for 

 fruit, its custom of seeking the vicinity of human dwellings, 

 lawns, gardens, and cultivated fields, all have resulted in its 

 increasing in numbers. As the forests were cleared away, 

 the planting of fruit trees furnished it food and nesting 

 places ; and so the Robin became part and parcel of our rural 

 civilization. It nests by preference in an apple tree near 

 farm buildings, but almost any nesting site will do, from a 



