434 NOTES ON THE 



The first noticed are either single or in small, loose parties, 

 but so silent and unobstrusive, as to elude all but practiced 

 observation. Its favorite haunts, so well known to be the low, 

 thickly shaded borders of the forest, along the banks of running 

 waters, overhung with wild vines, are now exchanged for those 

 less secluded places, seeking its food in the open fields, or 

 wherever it is most plentiful, which is quite near barns, sheds, 

 and dwellings in many instances. In bright days this range is 

 likely to be confined to the early morning, but when the sky is 

 clouded, he will often remain about the garden all day, partic- 

 larly when a little rainy also. My residence is very centrally 

 located, and beside an arboreal lawn of my own, I have neigh- 

 bors who have them also on either side of me, in any and all of 

 which the Wood Thrush may often be seen at this season, under 

 the conditions mentioned 



A lady friend* of rare culture, who is a critical observer of 

 the habits of birds, has a rear yard, or garden, only twenty- 

 four by sixty feet, surrounded by a high fence, along which are 

 planted bushes and shrubs, and in the centre, one or two fruit 

 trees. 



The buildings are built in solid blocks from street to street, 

 with no lawns, but she counts upon the visits of many species 

 of the birds regularly in their migrations, and this one in par- 

 ticular in which she is seldom dissapointed. Being perfectly 

 familiar with the habits of all the common thrushes, and 

 employing a field-glass at such short range, she could not con- 

 found the species. 



Immediately upon the arrival of the closely following females 

 unless the weather is exceptionally bad, the males will be 

 heard early in the morning warbling their liquid, bell- toned 

 notes from the top-most limb of a tree, surrounded by others 

 inferior in height, and all embraced in a compact thicket in 

 the woodlands. 



* Mrs. Sarah A. Hubbard author of the most charming Monograph on "The Hum- 

 ming Birds of the two Americas" published a few years since in Harper's Monthly. In 

 one of her warbling letters, written May 5th. 1883, she says, when speaking of birds; — 

 "And they have come, * * * Day before yesterday, a Wood Thrush, a Hermit 

 Thrush, and a S wainson's Thrush, spent the morning with me. I sit in a window look- 

 ing right down upon them, and witli my opera-glass it is almost as good as having 

 them in my hand. Tlie Wood Thrush, with his tawny head and erect crest, flapping 

 its wings and Iveeping a fierce, truculent demanor; The Hermit Thrush vvith olive 

 head and back, and tawny tail; and the Swainson's with pure olive on the upper 

 parts, were easily distinguished at a glance. The Hermit came first, April 4th, and 

 has been here ever since, sometimes visiting me in companies of three and four, but 

 more often in solitary state. 



I notice that when a bird comes, it is apt to stay all day, owing I think to the 

 quiet seclusion of the place, with its high walls and aliundant vines and shrubbery." 



