584 HISTORY OF THE 



Iris brown; bill black; sometimes the under is pale bluish at 

 base; legs and feet dark blue; claws horn blue. 



These peculiar birds inhabit the tangled thickets along the 

 prairie streams, and dense low undergrowths in the open woods. 

 They subsist chiefly upon beetles and other forms of insects, 

 and berries in their season. During the fall and winter months 

 they are shy and silent, but, in the early part of the breeding 

 season, very noisy and eccentric in their actions. They are 

 happily described by Audubon, as follows: 



"As in other migratory species, the males precede the females 

 several days. As soon as they have arrived, they give free vent 

 to their song at all hours of the day, renewing it at night when 

 the weather is calm and the moon shines brightly, seeming in- 

 tent on attracting the females b^- repeating in many-varied tones 

 the ardency of their passion. Sometimes the sounds are scarcely 

 louder than a whisper; now they acquire strength; deep guttural 

 notes roll in slow succession, as if produced by the emotion of 

 surprise; then others, clear and sprightly, glide after each other, 

 until suddenly, as if the bird had become confused, the voice 

 becomes a hollow bass. The performer all the while looks as 

 if he were in the humor of scolding, and moves from twig to 

 twig among the thickets with so much activity, and in so many 

 directions, that the notes reach the ear, as it were, from opposite 

 places at the same moment. Now the bird mounts in the air, 

 in various attitudes, with its legs and feet hanging, while it con- 

 tinues its song and jerks its body with great vehemence, per- 

 forming the strangest and most whimsical gesticulations; the 

 next moment it returns to the bush. If you imitate its song, it 

 follows your steps with caution, and responds to each of your 

 calls, now and then peeping at you for a moment, the next quite 

 out of sight. Should you have a dog which will enter its briery 

 retreat, it will skip about him, scold him, and frequently perch or 

 rise on wing above the thicket, so that you may easily shoot it. 

 "The arrival of the females is marked bv the redoubled exer- 



