92 Birds of Buzzard's Roost 



familiar, and while in a measure this was correct it was not 

 sufficient. This illustrates how little we know about the com- 

 mon things about us. Everybody ought to know that the bill 

 of the robin is yellow, and I ought to have been able to tell 

 the boy the name robin is from rubeo, meaning red, the dis- 

 tinctive color of the European robin, and in this connection 

 have told him some of the legends about the naming of that 

 bird. For instance the legend, that after Jesus had been nailed 

 to the cross; a robin timidly alighted on one of the extended 

 arms of that cruel instrument of death. With its wings, it 

 tried to wipe away the blinding sweat and blood from the face 

 of Jesus, while with its beak, it tried to pluck away one of the 

 thorns which were piercing his forehead. While doing so a 

 single drop of blood fell on the breast of the pitying little gray 

 bird, and thus gave to the world the robin redbreast. And to 

 it Jesus said: "Blessed be thou, little bird, which sharest my 

 sorrows. My joy accompany thee everywhere. Thine eggs 

 shall be blue as the sky above; thou shalt be the 'Bird of God, 

 bearer of good tidings.' " 



As a standard of measurement for other birds the robin 

 is ten inches long. The head and throat of the adult male are 

 black with a slight ring of white around the eyes and streaks 

 of like color under the throat ; the upper parts of the body, in- 

 cluding the wings and tail are slightly brown ; the tail when 

 widely spread shows a tip of white on each feather ; the under 

 parts of the body are chestnut, except the under tail coverts 

 and the abdomen which are white; the legs and feet are dark 

 brown. The adult female is smaller than the male, and her 

 plumage is much lighter or of a grayish color. The young are 

 conspicuously streaked and spotted with black and gray, and 

 in this respect show their relationship to the thrushes. 



The robin, as its common name indicates, is an American 

 bird, and as its scientific name indicates, is a migrant. Its 

 range is east of the Rocky Mountains, and extends from the 

 Gulf of Mexico to Labrador. Audubon recounts that the first 

 land bird he saw when he stepped upon the rugged shores of 

 Labrador, was the robin, and its joyful notes were the first to 

 salute his ears. This, he says, was at a time when large patches 

 of snow still dappled the surface of that bleak country, and al- 



