Species II. TURDUS RUFUS. 



FERRUGINOUS THRUSH. 



[Plate XIV. Fig. 1.] 



Fox-colored Thrush, Catesby, i., 28. — Turdus rvfus, Linn. Syst. 293. — Lath, hi., 

 39. — La Grice de la Caroline, Briss. ii., 223. — Le Moqueur Frangois, De Buff. 

 . III., 323, PL Enl. Ufi.—Arct. Zool. p. 335, No. 195. 



This is the Brown Thrush, or Thrasher of the Middle and Eastern 

 States ; and the French Mocking-bird of Maryland, Virginia, and the 

 Carolinas. It is the largest of all our Thrushes, and is a well known 

 and very distinguished songster. About the middle or twentieth of 

 April, or generally about the time the cherry-trees begin to blossom, he 

 arrives in Pennsylvania ; and from the tops of our hedge rows, sassafras, 

 apple or cherry-trees, he salutes the opening morning with his charming 

 song, which is loud, emphatical, and full of variety. At that serene 

 hour you may plainly distinguish his voice full half a mile off. These 

 notes are not imitative, as his name would import, and as some people 

 believe, but seem solely his own ; and have considerable resemblance to 

 the notes of the Song Thrush [Turdus musicus) of Britain. Early in 

 May he builds his nest, choosing a thorn bush, low cedar, thicket of 

 briars, dogwood sapling, or cluster of vines for its situation, generally 

 within a few feet of the ground. Outwardly it is constructed of small 

 sticks ; then layers of dry leaves ; and lastly lined with fine fibrous 

 roots ; but without any plaster. The eggs are five, thickly sprinkled 

 with ferruginous grains on a very pale bluish ground. They generally 

 have two broods in a season. Like all birds that build near the ground, 

 he shows great anxiety for the safety of his nest and young, and often 

 attacks the black-snake in their defence, generally too with success ; his 

 strength being greater and his bill stronger and more powerful than any 

 other of his tribe within the United States. His food consists of worms, 

 which he scratches from the ground, caterpillars, and many kinds of 

 berries. Beetles and the whole race of coleopterous insects, wherever 

 he can meet with them,- are sure to suffer. He is accused, by some people, 

 of scratching up the hills of Indian corn, in planting time ; this may 

 be partly true ; but for every grain of maize he pilfers I am persuaded 

 he destroys fiye hundred insects ; particularly a large dirty-colored grub, 

 with a black head, which is more pernicious to the corn and other grain 

 and vegetables, than nine-tenths of the whole feathered race. He is an 



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