OF NEW ENGLAND. 41 
(F) mrerarorics. (American) Robin. 
(An extremely common summer-resident in Massachusetts, 
where a few pass the winter.) 
(a). 9-10 inches long. Above, dark (olive) gray; head 
and tail almost black, both with white spots. Breast of a 
peculiar ruddy red or orange-brown, in pale specimens merely 
dun-colored. Chin, under tail-coverts, etc., white, more or 
less black-streaked. Bill generally yellow. 
(0). The Robins build their nests in bushes, vines, the larger 
garden-shrubs, or most often in trees; evergreens, particu- 
larly pines and spruces, being preferred to all others. Where 
these latter are wanting, they often build their nests in orchard- 
trees, or in those which shade the streets; occasionally, how- 
ever, placing them about some building. The nest is ‘“ sad- 
dled” to a bough or placed in a fork, from three to fifty feet 
above the ground, and is a very firm though rather rude struc- 
ture. consisting chiefly of mud, and of dry grass or its equiv- 
alent. 
The eggs of each set are four or five, delicate greenish blue, 
and about 1:15 X °80 of an inch. I have found freshly laid 
eggs of this species from May first until the twentieth of July ; 
two or even three broods being usually raised, if the parents 
are undisturbed. 
(c). The Robins are undoubtedly in summer the most abun- 
dant of all the birds in Massachusetts, and to most country- 
residents in this State are probably the most familiar; but in 
northern New England they are much less common than in 
most other parts of the eastern states. Dr. Brewer, however, 
has written that “in the valleys amongst the White Moun- 
tains, where snow covers the ground from October to June, 
and where the cold reaches the freezing-point of mercury, 
flocks of Robins remain during the entire winter, attracted by 
the abundance of berries.” A few certainly spend the winter 
about us, in the swamps, and also in cedar-woods ; for, though 
these latter contain but few berries, or none, yet the thick foli- 
age of many of the trees affords safe shelter from heavy 
