THE INVITATION. 271 



The thrushes are the birds of real melody, 

 and will afford one more delight perhaps than 

 any other class. The robin is the most fa- 

 miliar example. Their manners, flight, and 

 form are the same in each species. See the 

 robin hop along upon the ground, strike an 

 attitude, scratch for a worm, fix his eye upon 

 something before him or upon the beholder, 

 flip his wings suspiciously, fly straight to his 

 perch, or sit at sundown on some high branch, 

 carolling his sweet and honest strain, and 

 you have seen what is characteristic of all 

 the thrushes. Their carriage is preeminently 

 marked by grace, and their songs by melody. 



Beside the robin, which is in no sense a 

 wood-bird, we have, in New York, the wood- 

 thrush, the hermit-thrush, the veery, or Wil- 

 son's thrush, the olive-backed thrush, and 

 transiently, one or two other species not so 

 clearly defined. 



The wood-thrush and the hermit stand at 

 the head as songsters, no two persons per- 

 haps agreeing as to which is the superior. 



Under the general head of finches, Audu- 

 bon describes over sixty different birds, rang- 

 ing from the sparrows to the grossbeaks, and 

 including the buntings, the linnets, the snow- 

 birds, the cross-bills, and the red-birds. 



