194 HABITS OF BIRDS. 
serve the same round of notes, whatever is uttered 
seeming the effusion of the moment. At timesa 
strain will break out perfectly unlike any preceding 
utterance, and we may wait a long time without no- 

ASESRLS’ 
Wood-thrush. 
ticing any repetition of it. During one spring an in- 
dividual song-thrush, frequenting a favourite copse, 
after a certain round of tune, trilled out most regu- 
larly some notes that conveyed so clearly the 
words lady-bird! lady-bird! that every one remark- 
ed the resemblance. He survived the winter, and 
in the ensuing spring, the lady-bird! lady-bird! was 
still the burden of our evening song; it then ceased, 
and we never heard this pretty modulation more. 
Though merely an occasional strain, yet I have no- 
ticed it elsewhere ; it thus appearing to be a favour- 
ite utterance.”* 
* Journal of a Naturalist, p. 271, 3d ed. 
