Page:Field key to the land birds .. (IA fieldkeytolandbi00knob).pdf/82

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FIELD kp:y to the la^'d birds.

they are ripe the young are able to fly, and can forage anywhere. On his return in the spring the Robin will act as if he owned the place, doing exactly as did the bird of the year before, even sittnig on the same branches, so that one almost believes him to be the identical bird come back to his old quarters. Robins collect in large flocks in the South during the winter, but some small flocks sometimes stay in thick cedar swamps all winter long, and appear with the flrst bright days in early spring. 155. BLU1i:B1RD. Sialla .sia//.s-. Length, 7 inches. Upperparts blue underparts rusty red belly white. Female duller, paler, and grayish young with light round spots on the back and blackish edges on the breast feathers. One of the earliest birds to return in the spring, often coming so early as Almost every farm to be caught by a snowstorm. orchard harbors a pair, but gardens near villages are The Bluebird is quiet and Flyless in their favor. catcher-like in his manners. He sits for a while on an apple-tree limb or telegraph-pole, notices a worm in for themselves

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the grass, flies down and picks his place of lookout.

it

up, and returns to