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out to me by Dr. Brodie, but I have noted the same habit in several other species. The loud 
rolling notes will remind Europeans of the voices of the Song-Thrush and the Blackbird, but there 
is a terminal bar of frequent occurrence that recalls the metallic notes of our own Wood-Thrushes 
and reminds us of their near kinship to the Red-breasted Fifer ” (Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus. xiii. p. 685). 
Mr. Brewster has written (Auk, vii. p. 360) a most interesting account of the roosting-places of 
this Thrush during the summer months. It is too long to quote ¿n extenso, but I give some 
extracts :—“ Robins, while still in their summer haunts, form roosts which are resorted to regularly 
night after night and season after season by hundreds or even thousands. Such gatherings, however, 
are by no means uncommon in Massachusetts, and they doubtless occur throughout the entire North, 
wherever Robins abound. 
“South of the Charles River, in Longwood, about two and one half miles from the Norton 
roost, I found a considerable colony on the evening of Aug. 26, 1884. Their rendezvous was of the 
usual character—dense, swampy woods of oak and red maple. 1 did not again visit this place 
until Aug. 22, 1890, when I found that all the trees in the swamp had been killed by inundation. 
Nevertheless the Robins had not deserted the woods, but in fully their former numbers were roosting 
in a cluster of tall red maples, white oaks, and chestnuts which, standing on a knoll above the reach 
of the water, had escaped the fate of their fellows. Тһе entire area covered by the living trees was 
not over one quarter of an acre. 
* At the Beaver Brook roost Mr. Faxon, with the help of an assistant, counted 1883 incoming 
birds on the evening of Sept. 2, 1889. His next largest count, made without help Aug. 28 of the 
same year, was 1180. At Melrose Highlands, Mr. Torrey, unaided, counted 1267, July 29, 1889, 
and 1517 on the same date in 1890. Оп July 28, 1890, with an assistant, he counted 2314. Іп 
both cases the assistant stood near his principal and was employed merely to divide the labor, no 
more ground being covered than on the other occasions. 
“А good many birds approach the roost by short, interrupted flights, lingering on the way in 
isolated trees or groves, where they often sing for a minute or two. At Ше Longwood roost more 
than two thirds of the entire colony arrive in this manner, probably because the swamp is in the 
bottom of a deep hollow surrounded by hills crowned with woods or orchards which afford convenient 
places for alighting. 
“The first comers reach the roost an hour or more before sunset, but for the next thirty or forty 
minutes the arrivals are few in number and at wide intervals; although they gradually increase. 
'lhere is rarely anything like a continuous or heavy flight until within fifteen or twenty minutes of 
sunset, but rather more than half the total number usually pass in before the sun has dipped below 
the horizon. 
* For about fifteen minutes after sunset the rush continues unabated. It then begins to slacken, 
always diminishing more rapidly than it grew, and often ending with somewhat marked abruptness. 
Stragglers, however, continue to arrive until it is too dark to see them distinctly except against the 
light in the western sky. 
* The earlier comers usually alight on the topmost twigs of the taller trees and sometimes, after 
a brief rest, fly back to the fields to feed, as if conscious that they were ahead of time. If there is a 
brook or spring near at hand many birds visit it to drink or bathe. They are also fond of collecting 
in the upper branches of dead trees to bask in the last rays of the sinking sun, and a rum cherry tree 
loaded with ripe fruit is an irresistible attraction. But when the rush is at its height, there is rarely 
any loitering. Each bird, as it gains the woods, plunges into them at once, and with such directness 
and decision that one feels sure it has gone straight to its own particular perch. This, however, is 
evidently not the case, for during the entire period covered by the bulk of the flight, indeed for some 
time after the last belated straggler has stolen in, there is incessant and general agitation of the 
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