172 BIRDS OF THE PASTURE AND FOREST. 



ries and favorite insipid pears of more importance than 

 the whole agricultural crop of the States, have made sev- 

 eral efforts to obtain an edict of outlawry against him. 

 These repeated onslaughts have induced the friends of the 

 Eobin to examine his claims to protection, and the result 

 of their investigations is demonstrative proof that it is 

 one of the most useful birds in existence. The Catbird 

 and all the Thrushes are similar to the Eobin in their 

 habits of feeding, but are not sufficiently numerous to 

 equal it in the extent of their services. 



THE RED-THRUSH. 



After we have grown tired of threading our way through 

 ^ the half-inundated wood-paths in a swamp of red-maple 

 and northern cypress, where there is twilight at broad 

 noonday, and where the only sounds we hear are the 

 occasional sweet notes of the A^eery, now and then a few 

 quaint utterances from the Catbird, and the cawing of 

 Crows, high up in the cedars, we emerge into the upland 

 under the bright beams of noonday. The region into 

 which we enter is an open pasture of hill and dale, more 

 than half covered with wild shrultbery, and displaying 

 an occasional clump of trees. There, perched upon the 

 middle branch of some tall tree, the Eed-Thrush, the 

 rhapsodist of the woods, may be heard pouring forth his 

 loud and varied song, often continuing it without cessation 

 for half an liour. His notes do not, like those of the 

 Tinches and many other birds, have a beginning, a middle, 

 a turn, and a close, as if they were singing the words of a 

 measured hymn. The notes of the Eed-Thrush are more 

 like a A'oluntary for the organ, in which, though there is a 

 frequent repetition of certain strains, the close of the per- 

 formance comes not after a measured number of notes. 

 The Eed-Thrush has many habits similar to those of 



