no PROCEEDINGS MANCHESTER INSTITUTE 



Many birds are still remaining when in the first half of October 

 we come away. At this time and in September the plaintive 

 call of the species is much heard in all woodland, and it is almost 

 peculiar to this season. It is heard chiefly on the warmer days, 

 when to one passing through the woods the call comes from one 

 quarter and another. Upon chilly and colder days this call is 

 scarcely ever heard. Its plaintiveness seems to express regret 

 over the closing of the happy summer season. 



185. Planesticus migratorius migratorius. Robin. 



A spring and fall migrant, and a common summer resident. 

 The Robin is not abundant in Jefferson, on the Highland 

 probably not outnumbering the Hermit Thrush. The species 

 increases in number relatively as one proceeds toward the lower 

 levels of the Connecticut valley. Neither is the Robin as per- 

 sistent a singer as the Hermit. His voice becomes stilled sooner 

 in any period of song and earlier in the season than the Hermit's. 

 While the song may be occasionally heard in the first half of 

 August, practically the song-season is over with July. Some 

 nestings in August suggest that sometimes three families are 

 raised. 



By the end of August, after a period of scarcity of individu- 

 als, flocks appear and continue to appear in larger numbers 

 through September and early October. While the Robin is 

 found mostly in the open country, it is seen also far within the 

 forest where logging operations have been carried on, camps 

 built, and clearings made. Under these conditions he penetrates 

 the forest much farther than the Hermit Thrush has ever been 

 observed. Unless, however, there are evidences at hand that 

 man has wrought, even if it have been some years before, the 

 Robin as a resident of the forest is absent. 



186. Sialia sialis sialis. Bi^uebird. 



A fairly common summer resident, but much less common 

 than the Robin and the Hermit Thrush. Jefferson has mau}^ 

 young orchards set, but possesses few old orchards of sufficient 



