THE ROBIN. 
53 
are all the different species of thrushes we have ; hut the 
one we are now describing, being more unsettled, and con- 
tinually roving about from one region to another, during 
fall and winter, seems particularly entitled to the appella- 
tion. Scarce a winter passes but innumerable 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 circum- 
stance of their leaving, during that season, the country to 
the north-west of the great range of the Alleghany, from 
Maryland northward, 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 a large nest, often on an apple-tree, 
plasters it in the inside with mud, and lines it with hay or 
fine grass. The female lays five eggs, of a beautiful sea- 
green. Their principal food is berries, worms, and cater- 
pillars. Of the first he prefers those of the sour gum. 
So fond are they of gum-berries, that, wherever there 
is one of these trees covered with fruit, and flocks of 
Robins in the neighbourhood, the sportsman need only 
take his stand near it, load, take aim, and fire ; one flock 
succeeding another, with little interruption, almost the 
whole day : by this method, prodigious slaughter has been 
made among them with little fatigue. When berries fail, 
they disperse themselves over the fields, and along the 
