212 THE WOOD THRUSH. 
with a 
had been set upon his head, but often comes forward—not too close 
pit of inquiry and greeting. 
The Wood Thrush spends considerable time on the ground looking for 
beetles and worms, but he is ready at a moment's notice to flutter up on a 
log or low branch, and stand there surveying 
you, flirting, or twinkling, the wings occa- 
sionally to indicate his perfect readiness for 
further retreat, or else ruffling and shaking 
his feathers as tho to shake off the memory 
of the mold. A false step now and he may 
disappear irrevocably down some forest isle; 
a quiet glance of admiration serves to reas- 
sure him, and he may resume his feeding. 
There is an air of gentleness and good 
breeding about the bird, which goes a long 
way to disarm a wanton enemy, and one stu- 
diously hostile there could not be. Brighter 
than the other Thrushes in color, and marked 
unmistakably with heavy spots upon breast 
and sides, the Wood Thrush is further dis- 
tinguished in a gifted family by its wonder- 
ful voice. The chanting of the Wood ‘Thrush 
is one of the choice things in bird music. In 
the freshness of the undried morning the Taken near Circleville. 
Photo by the Author. 
bird mounts a low limb and takes up a part ONE TYPE OF NEST. 
in the grand anthem of nature, whose com- THIS NEST APPEARS NEAR THE CENTER CF 
. THE ILLUSTRATION ON PAGE 210 
mlementary voices may be lost to any ear less 
fine than his. The bird listens to the retreating foot-steps of the morning stars, 
and sings, “Far away—far away.” Zephyr stirs the unfolding leaves with 
ish alto and our matchless tenor responds, “Come to me—Here in glee 
4 
his boyis 
—bide a wee.’ in cadences of surpassing sweetness. Altho the singer’s voice 
is rich and strong, so that he may be heard at times for half a mile, there are 
at the same time grace notes and finer passages which only a near-by listener 
can catch. ‘The notes, | am told by musical critics, are, of all bird notes, the 
most nearly reducible to ordinary musical notation; but the peculiar timbre o7 
the bird’s voice, the rich vibrant quality of the tones, is of course inimitable. 
Their utterance at morning and evening is something more than a clever musi- 
cal performance; it is worship. 
