VIII. 



BIRD NOMENCLATURE. SOME ENG- 

 LISH AND AMERICAN BIRDS. 



WORCESTER, Aug. 8, 1887. 



MY DEAR MR. EDITOR, When our 

 forefathers settled this country they named 

 most of the birds they found here after 

 those that had been familiar to them in 

 Old England. Thus the common migra- 

 tory thrush (tnrdus migratorius) they 

 named the robin, because that bird's red- 

 dish-brown breast and familiar, sociable 

 ways reminded them of the English robin 

 redbreast, that much loved bird which the 

 pathetic old ballad of " The Babes in the 

 Woods " had immortalized. The famous 

 European skylark, which has inspired so 



