THE INVITATION 211 



The thrushes are the birds of real melody, and 

 will afford one more delight perhaps than any other 

 class. The robin is the most familiar example. 

 Their manners, flight, and form are the same in 

 each species. See the robin hop along upon the 

 ground, strike an attitude, scratch for a worm, fix 

 his eye upon something before him or upon the 

 beholder, flip his wings suspiciously, fly straight to 

 his perch, or sit at sundown on some high branch 

 caroling his sweet and honest strain, and you have 

 seen what is characteristic of all the thrushes. 

 Their carriage is preeminently marked by grace, 

 and their songs by melody. 



Beside the robin, which is in no sense a wood- 

 bird, we have in New York the wood thrush, the 

 hermit thrush, the veery, or Wilson's thrush, the 

 olive-backed thrush, and, transiently, one or two 

 other species not so clearly defined. 



The wood thrush and the hermit stand at the 

 head as songsters, no two persons, perhaps, agree- 

 ing as to which is the superior. 



Under the general head of finches, Audubon de- 

 scribes over sixty difi'erent birds, ranging from the 

 sparrows to the grosbeaks, and including the bunt- 

 ings, the linnets, the snowbirds, the crossbills, and 

 the redbirds. 



We have nearly or quite a dozen varieties of the 

 sparrow in the Atlantic States, but perhaps no more 

 than half that number would be discriminated by 

 the unprofessional observer. The song sparrow, 

 which every child knows, comes first; at least, his 



