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. — Eesident, but rarest in late December and early January. 



This large Thrush was named the Eobin 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 

 Pig. 125. — American Eobin, habit of foraging on the ground in 



about one-half natural size. ™„„,a i £ u •. n t « 



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 



