BROWN THRUSH; BROWN THRASHER. 



HAKPORHYNCHTIS RUFITS. 



THE song of this largest and most joyous of the 

 thrushes exhibits greater variety than that of any 

 other member of his most musical family. Despite a 

 lack of quality in tone, he is one of the favorites; his 

 fame is assured. In exuberance and peculiarity of 

 performance he is unsurpassed, unless it be by the cat- 

 bird. While prone to the conversational style, he is ca- 

 pable of splendid inspiration. Literary folk might term 

 him the "Browning" among birds. On a fine morning 

 in June, when he rises to the branch of a wayside 

 tree, or to the top of a bush at the edge of the pasture, the 

 first eccentric accent convinces us that the spirit of song 

 has fast hold on him. As the fervor increases his long 

 and elegant tail droops; all his feathers separate; his 

 whole plumage is lifted, it floats, trembles ; his head is 

 raised and his bill wide open : there is no mistake, it is 

 the power of the god. No pen can report him now ; we 

 must wait till the frenzy passes. Then we may catch 

 such fragments as these : — 



Lively. 



