154 OENITHOLOGY AND OOLOGY. 



and the Turdus alicice are the same. In a conversation with 

 Professor Baird, since the issue of Allen's paper, I was in- 

 formed, that, in a large suite of specimens of both species, 

 to which he had access, he could identify each by character- 

 istics so fixed that any confusion was impossible : he was 

 of the opinion that Mr. Allen had not seen the bird he calls 

 alicice. I have therefore not given that species as a bird of 

 New England, and think that it yet remains to be proved as 

 such. 



Dr. Bryant, in describing the habits of the Olive-backed 

 Thrush, says : — 



" Its note differs entirely from that of T. pallasii, and the birds 

 also differ very miich in their habits ; the latter species being gen- 

 erally seen on the ground, while the Olive-backed Thrush prefers 

 to procure its food among the branches. The one seen at Big Mud 

 Lake, Grand Manan, was perched on the top of a small dwarf-fir, 

 and was hunting the passing insects with all the dexterity of a 

 typical Flycatcher." 



TURDUS mGHATORlVS. — LinncBus. 



The Robin. 



Turdus migratorius, Linnceus. Syst. Nat., I. (1766) 292. Wilson, Am. Orn., I. 

 (1808) 35. Aud. Orn. Biog., II. (1834) 190. 



Merula migratoria, Sw. and Eich. Fauna Bor. Amer., II. (1831) 176. 



Description. 



Third and fourth quills about equal, fifth a little shorter, second longer than 

 sixth; tail slightly rounded; above olive-gray, top and sides of the head black; 

 chin and throat white, streaked with black; eyelids, and a spot above the eye an- 

 teriorly, white; under parts and inside of the wings chestnut-brown; the under tail 

 coverts and anal region with tibiae white, showing the plumbeous inner portions of 

 the feathers ; wings dark-brown, the feathers all edged more or less with pale-ash ; 

 tail still darker, the extreme feathers tipped with white ; bill yellow, dusky along the 

 ridge and at the tip. 



Length, nine and seventy-five one-hundredths inches; wing, five and forty-three 

 one-hundredths ; tail, four and seventy-five one-hundredths inches ; tarsus, one and 

 twenty-five one-hundredths. 



Hab. — Continent of North America to Mexico. 



It is very seldom that specimens exhibit the colors exactly as described. Nearly 

 always in winter, and in most cases at other times, the rufous feathers are margined 

 with whitish, sometimes quite obscuring the color. The black feathers of the head. 



