34 MIOItATOUY THRUSH. 



to Temminck it has been killed frequently in Germany; on the 

 testimony of Brehm it is recorded as having been killed near Vienna; 

 and M. de Selys-Longchamps thinks that the specimen indicated by 

 Schinz of Tardus rufus, as having been killed in England is referable 

 to this species. Whether this latter remark be true or not I cannot 

 say, but as we know nothing of its habits in Europe, I have much 

 pleasure in introducing the following graphic and interesting account 

 of it from "Fauna Boreali Americana" by Swainson. 



"The Red-breasted Thrush is very common in America, where it is 

 called the Robin. It affects the neighbourhood of towns, and is 

 observed to feed much on the fruit of Nyosa syhatica, and on 

 poke-berries, Phyloctacea decandria. 



It begins to sing in March, and pairs early in April. Its nests 

 were observed as high as the sixty-seventh parallel of latitude, and 

 as low as the fifty-fourth. The young are hatched about the end of 

 May in the latter districts, but not until the 11th. of June further 

 north. The snow even then partially covers the ground, .but there 

 are in the high latitudes abundance of berries of Vaccinium uliginosum 

 and V. vitis-idcsa, Arbutus alpina^ Empetrum nigrum, and some other 

 plants, which, having been frozen up during the winter, are exposed 

 the first melting of the snow, full of juice and in high flavour; 

 shortly afterwards, when the young require them, the parents get 

 plenty of fruit. 



It builds on the branch of a spruce fir-tree, generally about five or 

 six feet from the ground, taking no particular pains to conceal it, and 

 frequently selecting a tree in the immediate vicinity of a house. Its 

 nest is formed, like the European Thrush, of grass and moss interwoven, 

 and lined with dung. The eggs, five in number, are about fourteen 

 lines long, and have a bluish green colour like those of the Common 

 Thrush. 



He is one of the loudest and most assiduous songsters, his notes 

 rather like those of our Thrush, but not so loud. Within the arctic 

 circle the woods are silent in the bright light of noonday, but towards 

 midnight, when the sun travels near the horizon, and the shades of 

 the forest are lengthened, the concert commences, and continues till 

 six or seven in the morning. Even in these remote regions the mis- 

 take of those naturalists who have asserted that the feathered tribes of 

 America are void of harmony, might be fully disproved. Indeed the 

 transition is so sudden from the perfect repose — the death-like stillness 

 of an arctic winter — to the animated bustle of summer; the trees spread 

 their foliage with such magical rapidity, and every succeeding morning 

 opens with such agreeable accessions of feathered songsters to swell 



