About the House. 9 



carol from the top of a fence post or from some leafless bough on the first 

 promise of spring is surely the token of life and joy. 



The head of an adult male Robin is black, and the eyelids and a spot a 



little in front of and above the eye are pure white. The bill is bright yellow, 



the extreme end being more or less blackish. The upper 



American Robin. p art o f t h e body is olive slate in coloring;, and the tail 



Merula migratoria (Linn.). * 



feathers are black, the outer feathers on each side being 

 marked with white at their tips. The throat is white, streaked with blackish. 

 The feathers below the tail are white at the tips, showing more or less of the 

 slate color of their bases. The belly is also white. The rest of the lower 

 parts and the sides are bright chestnut brown. The adult female is similar 

 in color, but much paler or lighter, and with more slaty or gray feathers 

 mixed with the black of the head, particularly on the back part. The birds 

 are about ten inches in length. 



The young on leaving the nest have the slate color of the back streaked 

 with brownish white, and beneath are rusty white, spotted with black or slate 

 color. In the autumn all the individuals have the chestnut color on the 

 lower parts more or less obscured, each feather having an edging of white. 



This bird is found in Eastern North America, west to the Rocky Moun- 

 tains, and in Eastern Mexico and Alaska. It breeds from Virginia and 

 Kansas north to the Arctic coast. It winters from Southern Canada, irregu- 

 larly southward. 



Like the Bluebirds, Robins are familiar and intimate with man. They 

 nest by preference close to the house. Often the porch that has a suitable 

 projection, or the nearest tree with a horizontal branch, affords a location for 

 the nest. This is built, with an outer wall of coarse grasses and rootlets, 

 woven into a mud wall carefully plastered, and lined with fine grasses. From 

 three to five greenish blue eggs are laid. These are generally unspotted, but 

 sometimes have brownish markings. They are about an inch and an eighth 

 long, and nearly four fifths of an inch broad. The birds begin breeding from 

 the last of March until early May, according to locality. Two broods are 

 generally raised and sometimes three. 



Robins are eminently gregarious, except in the breeding season. As 

 soon as the first brood leaves the nest accompanied by the old males they 

 nightly repair to some selected roosting place where hundreds or more con- 

 gregate. These roosts are used till the falling leaves send most of the birds 



