CHAPTER X. 



WOODLAND SINGERS THE THRUSHES, VIREO, AND 

 PEABODY BIRD. 



THE plain -coated thrushes are our greatest singers. 

 Whoever has not heard them at the sunset hour, 

 while wheeling along the road in late spring or 

 early summer, has yet to hear the sweetest songs 

 of the sky. 



Wilson says little or nothing about the music of 

 two or three singularly gifted members of the Thrush 

 family, and it is particularly to these that I wish to 

 draw attention. The Turdidce is a large family ; in 

 one subdivision alone (the Turdince) there are quite 

 one hundred and fifty species. One of the most 

 familiar birds belonging to this division is the robin 

 (Merula migratoria\ who is quite a different bird 

 from his thrush cousins, how greatly different we 

 readily see upon making a general comparison. He 

 is not a woodland bird. 



The robin's voice is pitched low, those of all the 



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