THE AMERICAN ROBIN 
Called also: Red-breasted Thrush; Migratory 
Thrush; Robin Redbreast 
TT IS only when he is a baby that you 
could guess our robin is really a thrush, 
for then the dark speckles on his plump little 
yellowish-white breast are prominent thrush- 
like markings, which gradually fade, however, 
as he grows old enough to put on a brick-red 
vest like his father’s. 
The European Cock Robin — a bird as familiar 
to you as our own, no doubt, because it was he 
who was killed by the Sparrow with the bow 
and arrow, you well remember, and it was he 
who covered the poor Babes in the Wood with 
leaves — is much smaller than our robin, even 
smaller than a sparrow, and he is not a thrush 
at all. But this hero of the story books has a 
red breast, and the English colonists, who settled 
this country, named our big, cheerful, lusty 
bird neighbour a robin, simply because his red 
breast reminded them of the wee little bird at 
home that they had loved when they were 
children. 
When our American robin comes out of the 
5 
