THRUSHES, SOLITAIRES, BLUEBIRDS, ETC. 473 
gray, black of hind neck sharply contrasting with gray of anterior part of 
back ; outer tail feather without distinct white tip, often with no white; 
throat black, streaked with white ; rest of under parts, except tail coverts, 
rufous; in female paler and duller. In winter : upper parts tinged with 
brown ; under parts with feathers edged with white. Young: under parts 
spotted ; upper parts streaked with white. Young in first winter: head 
and neck brownish gray, like upper parts; rufous of breast paler, more 
olivaceous. Length: 10-11, wing 5.20-5.70, tail 3.80-4.70, bill .85-95. 
Distribution. — Breeds in Transition and Boreal zones in the western 
United States from the eastern base of the Rocky Mountains to the 
Pacific, and from British Columbia south to Lower California and Oaxaca, 
Mexico. 
Nest. —On prairies, on the ground, and, in timber, near the ground; 
compact and bulky, made of leaves, stems, twigs, and grasses, plastered 
together with mud, and lined with fine stems and rootlets. Eggs : usually 
4, greenish blue. 
Food. — Largely ants, caterpillars, grasshoppers, and the injurious large 
black crickets; also hackberry, mistletoe and pepper berries, and other 
small fruit. 
In the east the robin is the familiar bird of the dooryard, like the 
mockingbird of the south, or the brown chippie, the house finch, and 
the lark sparrow in parts of California. But in the west he nests in 
the mountains or far north, and when seen in winter is shy and 
nervous. Flocks are sometimes seen eating ivy berries in the ceme¬ 
teries of San Francisco, but are so timid they hide in the brush in 
great trepidation on the approach of man. 
The robin song, one of the most familiar and best loved of the 
east, is not often heard, but in southern California during the spring 
migration I have seen flocks of twenty birds in an oak top singing 
their soft evening song, and at Stanford I once heard a wonderful 
robin chorus equal to the best daybreak chorus one hears in the 
east. 
In the Sierra as in the mountains of New Mexico and Arizona, in 
both Transition and Canadian zones, the robins breed abundantly, 
and as you pass are seen shaking their tails as they chirrup in their 
old familiar way. In the neighborhood of Lake Tahoe we found 
large numbers of them gathered in a field alive with grasshoppers, 
and they were running about in all directions, tipping forward to 
catch the insects in characteristic manner. 
GENUS IXOREUS. 
General Characters. — Like Merula , but bill not notched. 
KEY TO FEMALES. 
1. Browner, with white markings restricted. Sitkan district. 
naevius, p. 473. 
1'. Grayer, white markings more extensive. Interior Alaska. 
meruloides, p. 474. 
