524 Birds of Colorado 
Description.—Male—Crown and sides of the head black, with 
little white round the eye and a spot of white on the lores; rest 
the upper-parts slaty-olive, becoming black on the tail; outer ta 
feather without or with only a narrow margin. of white at the ti 
no regular terminal spot ; chin and throat white, the latter streaked wi 
black ; rest of the under-parts cinnamon-rufous, the centre of + 
abdomen, anal region and under tail-coverts white and grey ; iris da 
brown, bill yellow, dusky at the tip, legs dark horny. Length 9. 
wing 5-5; tail 4-10; culmen -78 ; tarsus 1-20. 
The female resembles the male, but the black feathers of the croy 
are edged with greyish and it is smaller—wing about 5-25. Oth 
spring females, possibly birds of the previous year, have the head + 
same colour as the upper-parts, the tail dusky not black, the cinnamo 
rufous of the under-parts much paler and edged with white, and t 
bill much more dusky. In the fall a male has the upper-parts wash 
with yellowish-olive, concealing the black crown; the cinnamon 
the lower surface is edged with white. Young birds are dusky abov 
with most of the feathers tipped with black, and often a subtermin 
tip of white, giving a spotted appearance ; below whitish, becomi 
buffy on the flanks and middle of the breast, which are profusely spott 
with black. , 
Distribution.— Western North America, breeding from the coa 
district of Alaska, south along the Rocky Mountains to the plate: 
of Mexico, and westwards to the Pacific. 
The Western Robin is one of the commonest birds in Colorad 
Chiefly a summer resident, it arrives from the south about the midc¢ 
of March, and is to be found breeding from May to July everywhe 
from the plains up through the mountains to timber line. The great 
number of the birds disappear southwards in November, but a fe 
winter in sheltered places. Hersey tells me there is always asm: 
flock at Barr Lake, near Denver, through the winter ; Frey took o: 
near Salida on January 9th, while one or two can always be fow 
in Colorado Springs. They have been seen as early as February 15 
at Loveland (Cooke), and in the south of the State Gilman states th 
he has seen one on January 30th close to Fort Lewis, and others 
Montezuma, co. in the same month. 
Habits.—The Western Robin is a familiar bird, fow 
in the vicinity of man, and seen in the suburbs of o 
towns in considerable numbers, as well as in orchar 
and gardens in the country. It devours large quantiti 
of earth-worms, which it tugs out of their holes, as wi 
as other destructive insects and their larve. In tl 
