194 



HABITS OF BIRDS. 



serve the same round of notes, whatever is uttered 

 seeming the effusion of the moment. At times a 

 strain will break out perfectly unlike any preceding 

 utterance, and we may wait a long time without no- 



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. 



