282 USEFUL BIRDS. 
CHAPTER VIII. 
BIRDS OF FIELD AND GARDEN. 
THRUSHES AND THEIR ALLIES. 
The food of Thrushes is alluded to on p. 155, and the 
woodland Thrushes are described on the pages following it. 
American Robin. 
Merula migratoria. 
Length. — Nine to ten inches. 
Adult Male.— Above, dark gray, olive tinged, browner on wings; head and tail 
blackish, with white marks; breast ruddy, varying to bay; chin and lower 
tail coverts white; throat white, with black spots. 
Adult Female. — Similar, but duller; head and breast paler. 
Young. — Breast spotted with blackish. 
Nest.— Of grass and mud, on tree, wall, building, or bank. 
Eggs.— Greenish-blue; rarely spotted. 
Season. — Resident, but rarest in late December and early January. 
This large Thrush was named the Robin by the early 
settlers of Massachusetts, because it resembled somewhat in 
color the little Red-breasted Robin of England. Ornithol- 
ogists since then have called it 
the Migratory Thrush and the Red- 
breasted Thrush, but in vain; thus 
custom perpetuates error. 
The American Robin, as it is 
now called, is the most generally 
common bird in Massachusetts. Its 
Fig. 125.— American Robin, habit of foraging on the ground in 
about one-half natural size. gardens and fields, its fondness for 
fruit, its custom of seeking the vicinity of human dwellings, 
lawns, gardens, and cultivated fields, all have resulted in its 
increasing in numbers. As the forests were cleared away, 
the planting of fruit trees furnished it food and nesting 
places ; and so the Robin became part and parcel of our rural 
civilization. It nests by preference in an apple tree near 
farm buildings, but almost any nesting site will do, from a 
