1 68 VERTEBRATES I BIRDS. 



dark woods. Its soft, liquid, half-plaintive notes excel 

 in sweetness those of any other American bird, and 

 can only be approximated, never equalled, by those of 

 the flute in the hands of a master. They are few in 

 number, but possess a charm beyond description, touch- 

 ing the heart of every cultivated listener, and calling 

 forth all the nobler feelings of our nature. Says Au- 

 dubon, " How often, as the first glimpses of morning 

 gleamed doubtfully amongst the dusky masses of the 

 forest-trees, has there come upon my ear the delightful 

 music of this harbinger of day, and how fervently on 

 such occasions have I blessed the Being who formed the 

 Wood Thrush, and placed it in those solitary forests, as 

 if to console me amidst my privations, to cheer my de- 

 pressed mind, and to make me feel, as I did, that man 

 never ought to despair ! " 



The Hermit Thrush, 7. Pallasi, Cab., of the United 

 States east of the Mississippi, is seven and a half inches 

 long, the wing over three and three quarters inches ; the 

 color above light olive-brown, passing into rufous on the 

 rump, upper tail coverts, and tail, and with less intensity 

 on the outer surface of the wings. The under parts 

 white, scarcely tinged with buff across the fore part of 

 the breast ; the sides of the throat and the fore part of 

 the breast with rather sharply defined subtriangular spots 

 of dark olive-brown, and the sides of the breast with less 

 distinct and paler spots of the same ; and there is a 

 whitish ring around the eye. Its song, as I have learned 

 since the above was in type, rivals even that of the Wood 

 Thrush. 



The Dwarf Thrush, T. nanns, And., of the Pacific coast 

 of North America, is very similar to 7. Pallasi, but smaller, 

 being only six and a half inches long, with the wing three 

 and a half inches, and the white of the under parts is 

 purer, and the sides are glossed with bluish ash instead 



