AMERICAN ROBIN OR MIGRATORY THRUSH. 17 



is found close to the house, and it is stated by Nuttall that one was placed 

 in the stern timbers of an unfinished vessel at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, 

 in which the carpenters were constantly at work. Another, adds this 

 admirable writer, has been known to rebuild his nest within a few yards of 

 the blacksmith's anvil. I discovered one near Great Egg Harbour, in the 

 State of New Jersey, affixed to the cribbing-timbers of an unfinished well, 

 seven or eight feet below the surface of the ground. To all such situations 

 this bird resorts, for the purpose of securing its eggs from the Cuckoo, 

 which greedily sucks them. It is seldom indeed that children meddle with 

 them. 



"Wherever it may happen to be placed, the nest is large and well secured. 

 It is composed of dry leaves, grass, and moss, which are connected inter- 

 nally with a thick layer of mud and roots, lined with pieees of straw and 

 fine grass, and occasionally a few feathers. The eggs are from four to six, 

 of a beautiful bluish-green, without spots. Two broods are usually raised in 

 a season. 



The young are fed with anxious care by their tender parents, who, should 

 one intrude upon them, boldly remonstrate, pass and repass by rapid divings, 

 or, if moving along the branches, jerk their wings and tail violently, and 

 sound a peculiar shrill note, evincing their anxiety and displeasure. Should 

 you carry off their young, they follow you to a considerable distance, and 

 are joined by other individuals of the species. The young, before they are 

 fully fledged, often leave the nest to meet their parents, when coming home 

 with a supply of food. 



During the pairing season, the male pays his addresses to the female of his 

 choice frequently on the ground, and with a fervour evincing the strongest 

 attachment. I have often seen him, at the earliest dawn of a May morning, 

 strutting around her with all the pomposity of a pigeon. Sometimes along 

 a space of ten or twelve yards, he is seen with his tail fully spread, his 

 wings shaking, and his throat inflated, running over the grass and brushing 

 it, as it were, until he has neared his mate, when he moves round her several 

 times without once rising from the ground. She then receives his caresses. 



Many of these birds shew a marked partiality to the places they have 

 chosen to breed in, and I have no doubt that many which escape death in 

 the winter, return to those loved spots each succeeding spring. 



The flight of the Robin is swift, at times greatly elevated and capable of 

 being long sustained. During the periods of its migrations, which are 

 irregular, depending upon the want of food or the severity of the weather, 

 it moves in loose flocks over a space of several hundred miles at once, and 

 at a considerable height. From time to time a few shrill notes are heard 

 from different individuals in the flock. Should the weather be calm, their 



