[37.] 1 . M e r u l a m i g r a t o r i a . (Swainson.) Red-breasted Thrush.
Ge n u s , Merula. R a t . (Turdus, L in n .) *
Turdus migratorius. Lin n . Syst. Nat., i., p. 292, No. 6.
Grive du Canada. B u f f o n , PI. Enl., 56.8, f. 1.
Turdus migratorius. F o r s t e r . Phil. Trans., lxii., p. 399, No. 21.
Red-breasted Thrush. P e n n . Arct. Zool., ii., p. 335, No. 196.
Turdus migratorius. Lath . Ind., i., p. 330, sp. 12.
Red-breasted Thrush, Redbird or Blackbird. H e a r n e , Journ., p. 418.
Turdus migratorius. V ie il l o t . Ois. de VAnn., ii., pi. 60 (male), p. 5, pi. 61 (young).
Turdus migratorius. (The Robin.') W ilson, i., p. 35, pi. 2, f. 2. Sab in e, Frankl.
Journ., p. 674. B o nap. Syn., p. 75, No. 97*
Merula migratoria. Sw ain s. Syn., p. 367, No. 28.
Peepeechew. Cr e e I n d ia n s.
None of the feathered tribe are better known in America than this, which, from
its red breast and familiar habits, has obtained the name of the “ Robin.” It
winters, in immense numbers, in the Atlantic States, from New Hampshire to the
Gulf of Mexico, deserting at that season the tracts to the westward of the
Alleghany range. Notwithstanding the havoc made in its flocks for the supply of
the markets, it affects the neighbourhood of towns, and is observed to feed much
on the fruit of the sour-gum (Nyssa syhatica), and on poke-berries (Phylotacca,
decandra). Sometimes it disappears from a district for a week or two, and returns
again in larger flocks than before. In March it begins to sing, and pairs early
in April. Many pairs breed in the United States, but great numbers spread
themselves over every part of the fur countries, extending almost to the northern
extremity of the continent. Its nests were observed by the Expedition as high as
the sixty-seventh parallel of latitude; and, from the reports of various travellers,
it is known to visit the north-west coast of America. It arrives in the Missouri
(in lat. 41j0), from the eastward, on the 11th of April; and, in the course of its
northerly movement, reaches Severn River in Hudson’s Bay about a fortnight
later. Its first appearance at Carlton House, lat. 53°, in the year 1827, was on
the 22nd of April. In the same season it reached Fort Chepewyan, in latitude
58|°, on the 7th of May, and Fort Franklin, in lat. 65°, on the 20th of that month.
Those that build their nests in the fifty-fourth parallel of latitude, begin to hatch
* It is seldom that the great Swede can be accused of not having profited by the labours of his predecessors, or of
neglecting their classic terms. In this instance, our veneration for the talents of our illustrious countryman Ray,
induces us to adopt with pleasure the suggestion that has already been made, of distinguishing the true Thrushes (of
which the Blackbird is probably the type) by the generic name of Merula^Sw.
in the end of May; but, eleven degrees farther to the north, that event is deferred
till the 11th of June. The snow even then partially covers the ground; but there
are, in those high latitudes, abundance of the berries of the Vaccimum uliginosum, and Vitis idcea, Arbutus alphm, Empetrum nigrum, and of some other plants, which,
after having been frozen up all the winter, are exposed, on the first melting
of the snow, full of juice and in high flavour. Shortly afterwards, when the callow
young require food, the parents obtain abundance of grubs.
The Red-breasted Thrush builds its nest on the branch of a spruce-fir-tree,
generally about five or six feet from the ground, taking no particular pains to
conceal it, and frequently selecting a tree in the immediate vicinity of a house.
Its nest is formed like that of the European Thrush, of grass and moss, neatly
interwoven and lined with a compact coating of dung and clay. The male and
female labour in concert in constructing it; and when the young are hatched, they
jointly undertake the task of feeding them. The eggs, five in number, are about
fourteen lines long, and have a bluish-green colour, like those of the common
Thrush. The male is one of the loudest and most" assiduous of the songsters that
frequent the fur countries, beginning his chaunt immediately on his arrival. His
notes resemble those of the common Thrush, but are not so loud. “Within the
arctic circle the woods are silent in the bright light of noon-day, but towards midnight,
when the sun travels near the horizon, and the shades of the forest are
lengthened, the concert commences, and continues till six or seven in the morning.
Even in these remote regions the mistake of those naturalists who have
asserted that the feathered tribes of America are void of harmony might be fully
disproved. Indeed, the transition is so sudden from the perfect repose, the deathlike
silence of an arctic winter, to the animated bustle of summer; the trees
spread their foliage with such magical rapidity, and every succeeding morning
opens with such agreeable accessions of feathered songsters to swell the chorus—
their plumage as gay and unimpaired as when they enlivened the deep-green
forests of tropical climes, that the return of a northern spring excites in the
mind a deep feeling of the beauties of the season, a sense of the bounty and
providence of the Supreme Being, which is cheaply purchased by the tedium of
nine months of winter. The most verdant lawns and cultivated glades of Europe,
the most beautiful productions of art, fail in producing that exhilaration and
joyous buoyancy of mind which we have experienced in treading the wilds of
Arctic America, when their snowy covering has been just replaced by an infant
but vigorous vegetation. It is impossible for the traveller to refrain, at such