RED-BREASTED THRUSH. 183 



Plumage olive brown, underneath rufous; head of the adult 

 blackish, more or less spotted with brown below, and of an 

 ashy brown tint above in the young. 



Measurement. — Length nine inches and four lines; beak twelve 

 lines; tail three inches and six lines; feet fifteen lines; toe with 

 claw twelve lines and a half; extent of wings fourteen inches and 

 eight lines. 



This is a North American species, where it ranges 

 as far as Hudson's Bay. It is only an accidental 

 visitor to Europe. According to Temminck it has been 

 killed frequently in Germany; on the testimony of 

 Brehm it is recorded as having been killed near Vienna; 

 and M. de Selys-Longchamps thinks that the specimen 

 indicated by Schinz of Tardus rufus, as having been 

 killed in England is referable to this species. Whether 

 this latter remark be true or not I cannot say, but 

 as we know nothing of its habits in Europe, I have 

 much pleasure in introducing the following graphic and 

 interesting account of it from "Fauna Boreali Americana" 

 by Swainson. 



"The Red-breasted Thrush is very common in 

 America, where it is called the Robin. It affects the 

 neighbourhood of towns, and is observed to feed much 

 on the fruit of Nyosa sylvatica, and on poke-berries, 

 Phylotacea decandria. 



It begins to sing in March, and pairs early in April. 

 Its nests were observed as high as the sixty-seventh 

 parallel of latitude, and as low as the fifty-fourth. The 

 young are hatched about the end of May in the latter 

 districts, but not until the 11th. of June further north. 

 The snow even then partially covers the ground, but 

 there are in the high latitudes abundance of berries of 

 Vaccinium uliginosum and V. vitis-idcea, Arbutus alpina, 

 Empetrum nigrum, and some other plants, which, having 



