MERULA. 577 
Genus MERULA Leacu. (Page 571, pl. CXXIILI, fig. 5.) 
Species. 
Common Cuaracters (of North American species).— Adults (sexes essentially 
alike, but female usually a little paler and duller in color than male): Above plain 
grayish, the back, scapulars, and wing-coverts sometimes rusty or olive-brownish, 
the head sometimes blackish ; throat white, streaked with black or grayish ; chest, 
breast, sides, axillars, and under wing-coverts (sometimes belly also), plain rufous or 
buffy ; under tail-coverts, anal region, and hinder flanks (sometimes belly also) white, 
the first with concealed spots of grayish. Young: Above streaked with light fulvous 
or whitish ; beneath whitish, more or less tinged with rusty or buffy, and spotted 
with blackish or grayish. Vest very compact and rather bulky, with more or less 
of mud in its composition, usually saddled upon a horizontal branch, but often 
variously situated. Hggs 3-5, plain bluish (very rarely speckled with brown). 
a’. Upper parts in adults plain grayish, without rusty. 
6}. Breast, etc., in adults rufous, or reddish ochraceous ; exposed culmen usually 
less than .80, tarsus 1.30, or more. (Adults: Head and neck blackish, 
or at least decidedly darker than back; eyelids, a supraloral streak, and 
streaks on chin and throat white; wings and tail dusky (sometimes black), 
the feathers edged with slaty; back, scapulars, and rump uniform slaty, 
the feather of the first sometimes blackish centrally ; bill bright yellow, 
the upper mandible tipped with black. In winter, similar, but with upper 
parts tinged with brown, rufous feathers of breast, ete., margined with 
white, and upper mandible chiefly dusky, the lower duller yellow. Young 
in first winter: Head and neck brownish gray, like upper parts, the 
white of upper eyelid prolonged backward into a more or less extensive 
postocular streak, and rufous of breast, etc., paler, or more olivaceous.) 
c’. Outer tail-feather with a distinct white spot at tip of inner web; an- 
terior portion of back usually more or less clouded with black (in 
fully adult birds); length 9.00-10.00, wing 4.90-5.40 (5.28), tail 
4.10-4.50 (4.34), culmen .85-.92 (.90), tarsus 1.30-1.40 (1.34). Eggs 
1.15 X .78. Hab. Eastern and northern North America, breeding 
south to about 35° (farther in Alleghanies) ; north to Alaska (Yukon 
district) and Hudson’s Bay, west to Great Plains; occasional in 
eastern Mexico...... 761. M. migratoria (Linn.). American Robin. 
ce’. Outer tail-feather without distinct white tip (often with no white at 
all); anterior portion of back slaty gray, abruptly defined against 
black of hind-neck ; length 10.00-11.00, wing 5.20-5.70 (5.41), tail 
3.80-4.70 (4.24), culmen .85-.95 (.90), tarsus 1.20-1.40 (1.31). Eggs 
1.17 x .82. Hab. Western United States, north to British Columbia, 
east to,‘and including, Rocky Mountains, south over table-lands of 
Mexico.. 761a. M. migratoria propinqua Ripaw. Western Robin. 
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