THE INVITATION. 277 



figured and described over four hundred spe- 

 cies, one feels a real triumph on finding in 

 our common woods a bird not described in 

 his work. I have seen but two. Walking 

 in the woods one day in early fall, in the 

 vicinity of West Point, I started up a thrush 

 that was sitting on the ground. It alighted 

 on a branch a few yards off, and looked new 

 to me. I thought I had never before seen so 

 long-legged a thrush. I shot it, and saw that 

 it was a new acquaintance. Its peculiarities 

 were its broad, square tail ; the length of its 

 legs, which were three and three quarters 

 inches from the end of the middle toe to the 

 hip-joint ; and the deep uniform olive-brown 

 of the upper parts, and the gray of the lower. 

 It proved to be the gray-cheeked thrush 

 named and first described by Professor 

 Baird. But little seems to be known con- 

 cerning it, except that it breeds in the far 

 North, even on the shores of the Arctic 

 Ocean. I would go a good way to hear its 

 song. 



The present season I met with a pair of 

 them near Washington as mentioned above. 

 In size this bird approaches the wood-thrush, 

 being larger than either the hermit or the 

 veery ; unlike all other species, no part of 



