74 MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN. 



dashes about with upraised tail, bowing and bobbing. On 

 the ground it often moves about hke a mouse among the 

 flower-pots and plants, and in its constant search for insect 

 food it renders special service by visiting boldly dark and 

 dangerous places where no other bird would dare to go. Like 

 all Wrens it is very inquisitive and greets suspicious objects 

 with loud scolding; well-known foes, like the Cat, are vehem- 

 ently chided until they quit the vicinity of the nest or young. 

 Since six or seven young are reared in each brood and some- 

 times even two broods arc made, the number of insects de- 

 stroyed by one pair is simply incalculable and, though spiders 

 form a part, the House Wren must be counted among the 

 most beneficial birds. 



WOOD THRUSH. Hylocickla mustelina. 



From the twentieth of April to the twentieth of July, fully 

 three months, the song of the Wood Thrush can be heard in 

 the Garden every day. For a series of years one pair made 

 its nest in the arboretum in the same tree, a Norway Maple, 

 near the gate. Though the nest may be only twelve feet from 

 the ground, the brooding bird keeps sitting, no matter who 

 passes underneath, or sits down on the bench below. The 

 male is usually not far away singing to her to keep her com- 

 pany. A Wood Thrush sitting on her nest is a lovely picture; 

 her big, calm, intelligent eye appeals mightily to our sympathy 

 as she watches everything that goes on around her, ready to 

 leave, but determined not to forsake her charge until self- 

 preservation shall make it absolutely necessary. Formerly 

 the Wood Thrush was considered a shy denizen of the deep 

 forest, a sort of recluse, but this has changed in the course of 

 time, and it has become a bird which is actually courting the 

 friendship of man and winning it easily by its many good 

 qualities, graceful ways, excellent song and confidence in the 

 best sides of man's nature. In the suburbs of St. Louis it is 

 one of the most familiar birds, who knows the advantages of 

 living on private ground, building its nest within a few yards 

 of the windows of occupied houses. Its glorious song is singu- 

 larly solemn and serene; the tones, loud and clear, are rising 



