THE AMERICAN ROBIN. 103 



taste, has rejected the name " Bobin," and has re-named it as 

 the " American Thrush " — an exceedingly ill-chosen name. 



The bird is absent from Canada and the northern portions 

 of the United States during the winter months, usually com- 

 mencing its southward migration in Canada early in October, 

 while the last stragglers have usually departed by the beginning 

 of November. I have noticed that at this season they feed 

 chiefly upon the ground in the woods, and on being disturbed 

 they fly up, uttering a low chuck (similar to the alarm note of 

 our Redwing), and settle on the bare limbs of the neighbouring 

 trees, where they appear to be reconnoitring. The call-note is 

 a shrill whistle. 



The return migration takes place directly the snow begins 

 to melt. About the 2nd or 3rd of April it arrives in Nova 

 Scotia in small parties, which frequent chiefly the outskirts of 

 the forests, as, like the Old World Blackbird, the American 

 Bobin dearly loves to be near meadow or pasture land whenever 

 possible. For about two weeks the birds are but little occupied, 

 unless it is in pairing ; and, during this time, the favoured parts 

 of the woodlands resound towards dusk with the song of the 

 males. The song is loud, and possessed of little variation, but 

 still attractive ; it is certainly inferior in mellowness and 

 compass of voice to that of the Blackbird. It may be readily 

 syllabled as gie-it-up, gie-it-up, gie-it-up, pilly, pilly; but it is 

 strange what an amount of rivalry and assertion it conveys, for 

 the birds will sing one against the other with a surprising 

 vehemence and vigour for an hour at a time. 



About the 24th or 25th of April, just when the snow is 

 finally vanishing in the woods, the American Bobin commences 

 nest building, the nest being usually completed by the 3rd or 

 4th of May. A variety of situations are adopted for the nest, 

 which is usually, however, placed at no great height, although 

 I once found a nest at the extremity of a branch high up in a 

 pine, about thirty feet from the ground, this being the greatest 

 altitude at which I ever saw it. A common situation is on 

 the drooping branch of a hemlock, six or eight feet from the 

 ground, but it may be found in young firs or other trees and 

 not uncommonly in the forks of the still leafless silver birches. 

 The nest considerably resembles that of the European Mistle 



