198 
SINGING BIRDS. 
fond of washing, and dashes about in the water till every 
feather appears drenched ; he also, at times, basks in the 
gravel in fine weather. His food, in confinement, is almost 
everything vegetable except unbruised seeds, — as bread, fine 
pastry, cakes, scalded cornmeal, fruits, particularly those which 
are juicy, and now and then insects and minced flesh. 
The Catbird occurs regularly along the Annapolis valley in 
Nova Scotia, and in New Brunswick between the Maine border 
and the valley of the St.John, but it is rarely seen elsewhere in the 
Maritime Provinces. It is fairly common near the city of Quebec, 
and abundant about Montreal and in Ontario. 
ROBIN. 
Merula migratoria. 
Char. Above, olive gray ; head and neck darker, sometimes black ; 
wings and tail du.sky ; outer tail-feathers broadly tipped with white ; be- 
neath, brownish red; throat w'hite with dark streaks; under tail-coverts 
white; bill yellow. I.ength 9 to 10 inches. 
Nest. Usually in a tree, but often on fence-rail or window-ledge of 
house or barn; a bulky but compact structure of grass, twigs, etc., 
cemented W'ith mud. 
Eggs. 4-5; greenish blue (occasionally speckled) ; 1.15 X 0.80. 
The familiar and welcome Robins are found in summer 
throughout the North American continent from the desolate 
regions of Hudson’s Bay, in the 53d degree, to the tableland 
of Mexico. In all this vast space the American Fieldfares rear 
their young, avoiding only the warmer maritime districts, to 
which, however, they flock for support during the inclemency 
of winter. The Robins have no fixed time for migration, nor 
any particular rendezvous ; they retire from the higher lati- 
tudes only as their food begins to fail, and so leisurely and 
desultory are their movements that they make their appear- 
ance in straggling parties even in Massachusetts, feeding on 
winter berries till driven to the South by deep and inundating 
snows. At this season they swarm in the Southern States, 
though they never move in large bodies. The holly, prinos. 
