88 SOME CANADIAN BIRDS. 



sedentary in many parts of the country — by which is meant that 

 robins may be seen there at nil times of the year. Every season a 

 number of those birds spend the colder months in the Dominion, not 

 in the more southern sections only, but as far north as central New 

 Brunswick, where I have seen large flocks in mid- winter. These 

 winter visitors were not the same robins who helped to make our 

 June days merry, but other robins who had a relish for more bracing 

 air and journeyed to higher latitude before settling down to their 

 task of nest building. The frosty nights of the late axitumn drove 

 the insects into winter quarters and a flurry of snow covered up 

 the small fruits, suggesting to the red-breasted fraternity that 

 there might be a famine in that far north land, and forthwith they 

 winged their way toward a more genial clime. By the time they 

 reached our neighborhood they determined to rest and refresh 

 themselves with mountain ash berries. It was thus they chanced 

 to cross my path. 



The robins have a decided partiality to small fruits in general, 

 and these winter visitors sometimes continue to feed on the mountain 

 ash berries until the warm sun of a soft March day sets them 

 thinking once more of their Arctic home. During their visit they 

 are seen about the open country and the gardens only when the 

 air is balmy, for when Jack Frost is in evidence they keep under 

 cover of the thick woods. They have more white color in their 

 plumage — especially on the under parts — than the birds we see in 

 summer, but otherwise seem little diflerent from the robins of June. 

 They are just as active and as merry, singing lusti'y and long, 

 though they are less timid and suspicious, and therefore less watch- 

 ful than the summer visitors. 



Of course every Canadian knows the robin,, for it is an abundant 

 bird everywhere, and everywhere the same familiar friend. The bird 

 requires no description therefore, the black crown, dull olive gray 

 back and red breast have been seen in every field and in every 

 garden, but perhaps only the boys who have found the pretty blue 

 eggs, and watched the young chicks open their yellow mouths for 

 the welcome bug, and later watched those same chicks while they 

 learned to fly, know that the youngsters are thickly marked on their 

 breasts with stripes of dull blackish color. 



