18 AMERICAN ROBIN OR MIGRATORY THRUSH. 



movements are continued during the night, and at such periods the whistling 

 noise of their wings is often heard. During heavy falls of snow and severe 

 gales, they pitch towards the earth, or throw themselves into the woods, 

 where they remain until the weather becomes more favourable. They not 

 unfrequently disappear for several days from a place where they have been 

 in thousands, and again visit it. In Massachusetts and Maine, many spend 

 the most severe winters in the neighbourhood of warm springs and spongy 

 low grounds sheltered from the north winds. In spring they return north- 

 ward in pairs, the males having then become exceedingly irritable and 

 pugnacious. 



The gentle and lively disposition of the Robin when raised in the cage, 

 and the simplicity of his song, of which he is very lavish in confinement, 

 render him a special favourite in the Middle Districts, where he is as gene- 

 rally kept as the Mocking-bird is in the Southern States. It feeds on bread 

 soaked in either milk or water, and on all kinds of fruit. Being equally 

 fond of insects, it seizes on all that enter its prison. It will follow its owner, 

 and come to his call, peck at his finger, or kiss his mouth, with seeming 

 pleasure. It is a long-lived bird, and instances are reported of its having 

 been kept for nearly twenty years. It suffers much in the moult, even in 

 the wild state, and when in captivity loses nearly all its feathers at once. 



The young obtain their full plumage by the first spring, being spotted on 

 the breast, and otherwise marked, as in the plate. When in confinement 

 they become darker and less brilliant in the colours, than when at liberty. 



So much do certain notes of the Robin resemble those of the European 

 Blackbird, that frequently while in England the cry of the latter, as it flew 

 hurriedly off from a hedge-row, reminded me of that of the former when 

 similarly surprised, and while in America the Robin has in the same manner 

 recalled the Blackbird to my recollection. 



The extent of migration of this bird, and its breeding from the Texas to 

 the 56th degree of north latitude, and from the Atlantic coast to the 

 Columbia river, seem to me to afford a strong argument against the necessity 

 of migration in birds. In countries, like ours, of great extent and varied 

 climate, migrating birds find many favourable places at which to stop during 

 the summer months for the purpose of breeding. I have repeatedly men- 

 tioned that young birds regularly advance farther southward in winter than 

 their parents, which may be accounted for by the capability of enduring cold 

 being greater in the latter. Now, is it not probable that young birds of a 

 second or third brood, which are urged at an earlier period than those of the 

 first set, but late in the season, to force their way southward, and save them- 

 selves from the rigours of approaching winter, are at this period of weaker 

 constitution than those which have been born earlier, and have been less 



