WILSON'S THRUSH. 209 



almost similar to that of a lamb ; and when approached, watches 

 and follows the intruder with an angry or petulant quedh 

 queah ; at other times a sort of mewing, melancholy, or com- 

 plaining j'V^w y^eow is heard, and then, perhaps, a hasty and 

 impatient /^i^//<?^/ follows. The food of this species, at least 

 during the early part of summer, appears to be shelly insects of 

 various kinds, particularly Chrysomelas, or lady-bugs, and those 

 many legged hard worms of the genus lulus. 



A good while after the commencement of the period of in- 

 cubation I have observed the males engaged in obstinate quar- 

 rels. On the 4th of June, 1830, I observed two of these 

 petulant Thrushes thus fiercely and jealously contending ; one 

 of them used a plaintive and angry tone as he chased his 

 antagonist up and down the tree. At length, however, a cousin 

 Catbird, to which this species has some affinity, stepped in be- 

 twixt the combatants, and they soon parted. One of these 

 birds had a nest and mate in the gooseberry bush of a neigh- 

 boring garden ; the second bird was thus a dissatisfied hermit, 

 and spent many weeks in the Botanic Garden, where, though 

 at times sad and solitary, yet he constantly amused us with his 

 forlorn song, and seemed at last, as it were, acquainted with 

 those who whistled for him, peeping out of the bushes with a 

 sort of complaisant curiosity, and from his almost nocturnal 

 habits became a great persecutor of the assassin Owl whenever 

 he dared to make his appearance. 



The nest of Wilson's Thrush (commenced about the close of 

 the first week in May) is usually in a low and thorny bush in 

 the darkest part of the forest, at no great distance from the 

 ground (i to 3 feet), sometimes indeed on the earth, but 

 raised by a bed of leaves, and greatly resembles that of the 

 Catbird. This species seems, indeed, for security artfully to 

 depend on the resemblance of itself and its leafy nest with the 

 bosom of the forest on which it rests, and when approached it 

 sits so close as nearly to admit of being taken up by the hand. 

 The nest sometimes appears without any shelter but shade and 

 association of colors with the place on which it rests. I have 

 seen one placed on a mass of prostrated dead brambles, on a 

 VOL. I. — 14 



