44° Roosevelt Wild Life Bulletin 



and stumps in woodland clearings. Although recently the Bluebird 

 has become more generally noticeable, it is doubtful whether it will 

 recover its former place of familiarity about houses. 



Robin. Planesticus migratorius migratorius (Linn.) 



Length 10. Upper parts slaty brown; head darker; breast chestnut-red; 

 vent and corners of tail (shown in flight) white. 



The Robin is associated with clearings or with woodlands in the 

 vicinity of human haunts. In the early weeks of spring the Robin 

 is a bird of the lawn, dooryard and garden, where it seeks the 

 earthworms and similar food then abundant near the surface of the 

 ground, and where water is at hand for bathing and mud for its 

 nest. In the middle of the summer it resorts more to fruit gardens 

 and berry patches, especially while it is feeding and training its 

 youn^. After the garden fruits and berries have failed, in the late 

 fall, the Robin hunts in the wild woods and ravines. The singing of 

 the Robin, as of other birds, is an accompaniment of the breeding 

 season, and is continued until the young of the last brood leave 

 home. In the Cranberry Lake district most of the second broods 

 of Robins are on the wing by July 25, and then Robin music ceases, 

 and the harsh squeaks of the juveniles betray their presence in the 

 fire cherry and berry thickets. About July 20, elderberries are 

 ready and raspberries begin to ripen. From that time Robins in the 

 Adirondack region haunt the fruit-producing areas, flocking together 

 more, and thus pass the remainder of summer until the end of 

 August, after which they devote themselves to the mountain ash 

 and other late supplies of wild fruit, but avoid the depths of the 

 forest. The nest of mud and dried grasses and plain greenish blue 

 eggs of the Robin are well known. The highest site I have ever 

 seen was on a maple limb about forty feet above the ground. 



Hermit Thrush. Hylocichla guttata pallasi (Cab.) 



Length 6.5. Smallest of the Thrushes; back and sides, brown; tail rust- 

 red, often tilted up and down ; lower surface white, with rows of arrow- 

 head-like black marks except on throat and belly. 



Wherever a patch of virgin woods borders a bog or burn, the 

 Hermit Thrush may be heard at almost any hour of the day during 

 its song period; and where the dark forest contains openings of 

 sphagnum moss, or is rankly overgrown with cinnamon fern in 

 small illuminated spots, there the Hermit Thrush dwells and sings 

 and rears its brood. In such places there are frequently large 

 boulders carpeted with green mould and supporting a thick growth 

 of fern, and in such sites the Hermit Thrush often makes its nest, the 

 top of the boulder giving it a sheltered vantage point and the cluster- 

 ing fern affording concealment. Frequently the Hermit Thrush will 

 make its nest somewhat outside the forest margin, in the base of a 

 fern-clump or bush, or on a mossy, sheltered log, yet seldom far 

 from the borders of the forest. The nest is sunken in the moist 

 earth, among the grasses and ferns ; composed of fine rootlets, hem- 

 lock twigs, forest leaves, mosses, fine weed stems and grasses, and 



