112 
TURDUS MIGRATORIUS. 
92 . TURDUS MIGRATOIilUSy LINNiEUS AND WILSON. THE ItOBIN. 
WILSON, PLATE II. FIG. II. 
This well known bird, being* familiar to almost every 
body, will require but a short 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 colour ; 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 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 innu- 
merable thousands of them are seen in the lower parts 
of the whole Atlantic States, from New Hampshire to 
Carolina, particularly in the neighbourhood of our 
towns ; and, from the circumstance of their leaving, 
during that season, the country to the northwest of 
the great range of the Alleghany, from Maryland north- 
ward, 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 his nest, often on an apple tree, 
plasters it in the inside with mud, and lays five eggs of 
a beautiful sea green. The colours 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 
