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 pieces 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 earliestdawn 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 
