12 Bird Studies. 



to their winter homes. Here, too, they are gregarious, and in Florida in 

 winter they wander through the woods in great flocks, reminding one of 

 Blackbirds. Their food is largely berries of various kinds, such as those of 

 the mistletoe and holly ; but in the north, though fruit is not disdained, in- 

 sects and particularly worms are what the birds feed on. Bird songs have 

 each their character, and to me the Robin's means good cheer and hope. 



Wood Thrushes are brown above, brighter and with a cinnamon tinge 



on head and shoulders, gradually becoming a clear olive brown on the 



tail. Beneath they are white, marked with clear round 



Wood Thrush, black spots, except on the feathers below the tail and 



Turdus mustelinus Gmel. 



on the belly. The throat is white, defined by a clear 

 black line on either side running from the bill to the markings on breast. 

 The birds are about eight and a quarter inches in length. The sexes are 

 alike. The young, on leaving the nest, are much like adults, though the 

 feathers are more filamentous. The brown feathers of the upper parts, head 

 and back, are streaked with dull buffish white. The spotting below is more 

 transverse, and the white is suffused with buff on the sides and breast. 



This Thrush is found in the Eastern United States, west to the Plains, 

 and as far north as Michigan, Ontario, and Massachusetts. They winter in 

 Central America. They breed from Virginia, Kentucky, and Kansas north- 

 ward. The nest is usually placed in a sapling ten feet from the ground. 

 The outside of the nest is of large dead leaves, roots, and twigs. These are 

 woven into an inner wall of mud, and the lining is of fine rootlets. The 

 eggs are two to five in number, are pale greenish blue in color, and unspot- 

 ted. They are a little more than an inch long and less than three quarters 

 of an inch broad. 



This is the most conspicuous spotted Thrush, the only one that sings 

 commonly in the vicinity of New York and south of that point, except in 

 high altitudes. About shady lawns and often close to houses, in the woods, 

 especially those that are damp and dark, he finds his summer home. The 

 clear, bell-like notes that make his song so distinct in the summer orchestra 

 of bird life, particularly in the morning and evening, may be heard from the 

 piazza of almost any country house and in the woods near by. 



The Wood Thrush comes to us late in April, or at the beginning of 

 May, and leaves in September and early October. Individuals in the fall in 

 new unworn plumage are beautiful birds. All the colors are intensified, and 



