robin redbreast n also robin Cp OED ~ 1 a 'European redbreast' (1450-1862); DAE 'thrush' (1761-). Red-breasted migrating thrush of North America (Turdus migratorius nigrideus);
NEWFOUNDLAND ROBIN.
[1766] 1971 BANKS 382 Turdus ferrungineus ... Vernacular name Robin ... Common in weeds, very abundant about St John's. [1799] 1792 CARTWRIGHT ii, 454 I shot a loon, took a duck's nest ... and found a robin's nest. These birds are somewhat bigger than a thrush, are like that bird in shape, but of a more beautiful plumage. They build the same sort of nest, but their note is like the blackbird's; their eggs also, of which they seldom lay more than three, are very like those of the blackbird's. 1842 BONNYCASTLE i, 227 The Newfoundland blackbird is, perhaps, the rose-coloured ouzel (turdus roseus), called a robin here, although as large as a blackbird. [1930] 1980 Evening Telegram 2 Apr, p. 6 The robin red breast, harbinger of spring, is finally here. A flock of eighteen or twenty of the beautiful little birds was observed yesterday near Long Pond woods. 1967 Bk of Nfld iii, 280 ROBIN (Turdus migratorius): Arrives in large flocks in late March. More and more in recent years, it has been overwintering. P 245-77 We'd always say, 'I saw a robin redbreast on the tree'—never 'I saw a robin.'
