THE WOOD THRUSH. 



EARLY in this book you saw what would probably 

 be called the handsomest song bird in Bird 

 World, the Scarlet Tanager ; but most people would 

 rather live near a Wood Thrush than a Tanager, in 

 spite of his plain brown and white suit. For this 

 Thrush is the finest of all our many songsters; his 

 notes are as rich and sweet as an organ's or those of 

 a stringed instrument. Early in May he reaches 

 New England, but when the hot days of August 

 come, he stops singing, and before October he leaves 

 for the south, where, silent and shy, he hides in the 

 woods till April comes again. 



Mr. Samuels says: " The thrushes are the birds that 

 rid the soil of noxious insects that are not preyed 

 upon by other birds." 



Warblers capture insects in the foliage of trees; 

 flycatchers, those that are flying about; swallows, 

 those which have escaped all these; woodpeckers, 

 those in the larval state in the wood; wrens, nut- 

 hatches, titmice, and creepers eat the eggs on and 

 under the bark, but the thrushes subsist on those 

 which destroy the vegetation on the surface of the 

 earth. 



