Species IX. TURD US MIGRA TORI US. 
ROBIN. 
[Plate II. Fig. 2.] 
Linn. Syst. i., p. 292, G. — Tardus Canadensis, Briss. ii., p. 225, 9. — La TAtorne de 
Canada, Buff, hi., p. 307. — -Grive de Canada, PI. Enl. 556, 1. — Fieldfare of 
Carolina, Cat. Car. 1, 29. — Red-breasted Thrush, Arct. Zool. n., No. 196. — Lath. 
Syn. ii., p. 26. — Bartram, p. 290. 
This avcII known bird, being familiar to almost every body, will 
require but a sbort description. It measures nine inches and a half in 
length ; the bill is strong, an inch long, and of a full yellow, though 
sometimes black, or dusky near the tip of the upper mandible ; the 
head, back of the neck and tail is black ; the back and rump an ash 
color; the wings are black edged with light ash; the inner tips of the 
two exterior tail feathers are white ; three small spots of white border 
the eye ; the throat and upper part of the breast is black, the former 
streaked with white ; the whole of the rest of the breast, down as far 
as the thighs, is of a dark orange ; belly and vent white, slightly waved 
with dusky ash; legs dark brown; claws black and strong. The colors 
of the female are more of the light ash, less deepened with black ; and 
the orange on the breast is much paler, and more broadly skirted with 
white. The name of this bird bespeaks him a bird of passage, as are 
all the different species of Thrushes we have ; but the one we are now 
describing being more unsettled, and continually roving about from one 
region to another, during fall and winter, seems particularly entitled to 
the appellation. Scarce a winter passes but innumerable thousands of 
them are seen in the lower parts of the whole Atlantic states, from NeA\* 
Hampshire to Carolina, particularly in the neighborhood of our towns ; 
and from the circumstance of their leaving, during that season, the 
country to the north-west of the great range of the Alleghany, from 
Maryland northward, it would appear that they not only migrate from 
north to south, but from west to east, to avoid the deep snows that 
generally prevail on these high regions for at least four months in the 
year. 
The Robin builds a large nest, often on an apple tree, plasters it in 
the inside with mud, and lines it with hay or fine grass. The female 
lays five eggs of a beautiful sea green. Their principal food is berries, 
worms and caterpillars. Of the first he prefers those of the sour gum 
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