10 DESCRIPTION OF TURDUS MEGRATORIUS 



9 in summer : Similar to the $ , but the colors duller ; upper parts rather 

 olivaceous-gray ; chestnut of the under parts paler, the feathers skirted 

 with gray or white; head and tail less blackish ; throat with more white. 

 Bill much clouded with dusky. 



$ $ in winter and young: Similar to the adult female, but receding some- 

 what farther from the $ in summer by the duller colors, the paleness and 

 restriction of the chestnut, with its extensive skirting with white, lack of 

 distinction of the color of the head from that of the back, tendency of the 

 white spot before the eye to run into a superciliary streak, and dark color 

 of most of the bill. 



Very young birds have the back speckled, each feather being whitish 

 centrally, with a dusky tip, and the cinnamon of the under parts is spotted 

 with blackish. The greater coverts are tipped with white or rufous, fre- 

 quently persistent, as are also some similar markings on the lesser coverts. 



Albinos, partial or complete, of this species are of comparatively frequent 

 occurrence. 



In specimens bred in the Colorado Basin and other portions of the South- 

 west, there is a tendency to greater length of the tail ; this member averag- 

 ing in length nearly at the maximum of that of Eastern specimens. With 

 this is coupled the reduction or extinction of the white spot on the exterior 

 tail-feathers. 



FIG. 3. Head of Robin, natural size. 



THE Eobin is found in all parts of North America. It also 

 occurs in Greenland, on islands in Bering's Sea, on several 

 of the West India islands, as Bermuda, Cuba, and Tobago ; 

 and through Mexico to Guatemala. It has even been known to 

 cross the Atlantic, having been several times shot in Europe.* 

 Such general statement of its distribution requires little if any 

 qualification. For, though it is a woodland bird, like all of its 

 tribe, and therefore scarcely to be found in certain portions of 

 the country, where desert or prairie fail to afford requisite con- 



* In the above synonymy, numerous European references are given, which 

 must not be presumed, however, to indicate as many different instances of 

 its occurrence, since several may relate to the same case. Dr. Cabanis sup- 

 poses the individual taken in Germany in December, 1851, to have leached 

 that country via Siberia, not by crossing the Atlantic. 



