232 THE RUSSET-BACKED THRUSH. 
ARTISTS of the later schools agree that shadows are not often black, as 
they have been conventionally represented for centuries. 
Their deepest color 
note is always that of the ground, or screen, which bears them. The Thrush, 
therefore, is the truest embodiment of woodland shade, for the shifting russets 
RUSSET-BACKED THRUSH. 
of its upperparts 
melt and blend with 
the tints of fallen 
leaves, dun _ roots, 
and the shadows of 
tree-boles cast on the 
brown ashes of fall- 
en comrades. Not 
content, either, with 
such protective guar- 
antee, this gentle 
spirit clings to cover, 
and reveals itself on- 
ly as a flitting shade 
and a haunting 
voice. Now and then 
a brown gleam does 
cross some open 
space in the forest, 
but the action is has- 
ty and the necessity 
much regretted. 
The Russet-backed 
Thrush is not much 
given to song, altho 
on occasion the 
woodside may ring 
with the simple mel- 
ody of its wee loo 
weelo weeloece*. 
Other notes are more 
notable and charac- 
teristic; and by these 
one may trace the 
bird’s every move- 
a. Prof. O. B. Johnson in his “List of the Birds of the Willamette Valley, Oregon” [Am. Naturalist, 
July, 1880, p. 487] has made an excellent characterization of this song in “Holsey, govendy, govindy, 
goveendy.” 
