Much is said of their fondness for fruit blossoms and tree buds, but the truth
is that noxious insects and seeds of grain constitute their food in summer,
the berries of evergreens in winter. To a bird so gay of color, charming of
voice, social, and trustful of disposition, surely a few blossoms might be
spared without grudging.
THE AMERICAN ROBIN (Merula migratoria) Thrush family
Called also: RED-BREASTED OR MIGRATORY THRUSH; ROBIN-REDBREAST
Length -- 10 inches.
Male -- Dull brownish olive-gray above. Head black; tail brownish
black, with exterior feathers white at inner tip. Wings dark
brownish. Throat streaked with black and white. White eyelids.
Entire breast bright rusty red; whitish below the tail.
Female -- Duller and with paler breast, resembling the male in
autumn.
Range -- North America, from Mexico to arctic regions.
Migrations -- March. October or November. Often resident
throughout the year.
It seems almost superfluous to write a line of description about a bird that
is as familiar as a chicken; yet how can this nearest of our bird neighbors be
passed without a reference? Probably he was the very first bird we learned to
call by name.
The early English colonists, who had doubtless been brought up, like the rest
of us, on "The Babes in the Wood," named the bird after the only heroes in
that melancholy tale; but in reality the American robin is a much larger bird
than the English
robin-redbreast and less brilliantly colored.
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