'FERRUGINOUS THRUSH, OR THRASHER. 329 



comparative advancement of the season. They appear 

 always to come in pairs, so that their rhutual attachment 

 is probably more durable than the season of incubation. 

 Stationed on the top of some tall orchard or forest tree, 

 the male, gay and animated, salutes the morn of his 

 arrival with his loud and charming song. His voice, 

 somewhat resembling that of the Thrush of Europe, but 

 far more varied and powerful, rises preeminent amidst all 

 the vocal choir of the forest. His music has the full 

 charm of innate originality ; he takes no delight in mim- 

 icry, and has therefore no title to the name of Mocking- 

 bird.* On his first appearance, he faulters in his song, 

 like the Nightingale, but when his mate commences her 

 cares and labors, his notes attain all their vigor and 

 variety. The young birds, even of the first season, 

 in a state of solitary domestication, without the aid of 

 the parent's voice, already whisper forth in harmonious 

 reverie the pathetic and sweet vrarble, instinctive to the 

 species. In the month of May, while the blooming or- 

 chards perfume and decorate the landscape, the enchant- 

 ing voice of the Thrasher, in his affectionate lay, seems 

 to give grateful utterance for the bounty and teeming 

 profusion of nature, and falls in pleasing unison with the 

 harmony and beauty of the season. 



From the beginning to the middle of May the Thrash- 

 er is engaged in building his nest, selecting for this pur- 

 pose usually a low, thick bush, in some retired thicket or 

 swamp, a few feet from the earth, and sometimes even on 

 the ground, in some sheltered tussuck, or near the root 

 of a bush. It has a general resemblance to the nest of 

 the Cat-bird ; outwardly being made of small interlacing 

 twigs, then layers of dry oak or beech leaves, either whole 



*He is called in the Southern States, the French Mocking-bird. 



28* 



