

!jB &^^^i^ .-.lis' 



THE TllRrsH.* 



The Fourth Family compi-ehends the Merui,!!)^, or thrushes, and includes, besides 

 what may be designated the true thrushes, the orioles, the ouzels, and many others. In 

 this family are some of our best song-birds, and it has representatives in every quarter of 

 the globe. These birds are more or less terrestrial in their habits, and for this purpose 

 are provided with strong tarsi, by moans of which they can i)ui'sue tlieir food among 

 fields or hedtres. 



Our rural poet ('lare, with exquisite discrimination and power of description, thus 

 speaks of the nest of this bird ; — 



Within ;i thick and spicuding ha'.vlliuni bush 

 That overhuii}^ a molehill large and round, 



I heard, from morn to morn, a merry thrush 

 Sing hymns to sunrise, while I drank the sound 



With joy : and often an intruding guest, 

 I watched her secret toils, from day to day, 



How true she warped the moss to form her nest. 

 And modelled if within with wood and clay. 



And by-and-by, like heath-bells gilt with dew. 

 There lay her shining eggs, as bright as flowers, 



Ink-spotted-ovcr shells of green and blue, 

 And there I witnessed, in the summer hours, 



A brood of noture's minstrels chirp and fly. 



Glad as the sunshine and the laughing sky. 



* Turdus Musie\is. 



