CHAPTER VI 



The Wood Thrush: Hylodchla Mustelina 



IN THE VALLEY OF THE WOOD ROBIN 



I AM always happy to learn the 

 location of a pair of birds by any 

 method, but it is pure delight to 

 find a nest myself. For a week, 

 on coming from field work in the 

 evening, when crossing the levee 

 that bridges the valley lying be- 

 tween the Wabash and the outlet 

 of the Limberlost, I heard a Wood 

 Thrush or Bell Bird singing the 

 ecstatic passion song of mating 

 time. 



The embankment was fifteen 

 feet high. On either side of it lay 



patches of swamp which grew giant forest trees and almost im- 

 penetrable thickets of underbrush. There were masses of dog- 

 wood, hawthorn, wild plum, ironwood and wild rose bushes 

 growing beneath the big trees ; grape-vines, trumpet creeper and 

 wild ivy clambered everywhere, while the ground was covered 

 with violets, anemones, spring beauties, cowslips, and many 

 varieties of mosses and ferns. The place was so damp, dark and 

 cool that the cowslips were paler than is their wont, while the 

 violets grew stems a foot in length. A small creek wound a 



83 



NEST OF WOOD ROBIN, SHOWING USE 

 OF CAST SNAKE SKIN 



