800 



THRUSH. 



rate state of culture, the birds are sure to make their 

 appearance. They are about the least suspicious of 

 all birds, and will allow very considerable liberties to 

 be taken with their nests without deserting them. 

 Some of the eggs may be taken out, or the nest 

 itself may be shifted to a new situation, and yet, if it 

 is placed so that she can see it, the female will return 

 to her incubation as if nothing had happened ; 

 whereas, if the half of this liberty were taken with 

 the nests of most birds, they would desert them. 

 Wilson tried whether they would carry their indif- 

 ference to circumstances to a greater length than 

 this. He put two half-fledged young of one nest into 

 another nest, in which the female was sitting upon 

 five eggs, to see whether she would sit while the 

 intruders were there ; but she ejected them from the 

 nest, and resumed her duty. They were not injured 

 by their fall, and the male bird fed them with great 

 attention. 



Notwithstanding the obvious connection that there 

 is between these birds and cultivation for there is 

 no animal that follows the progress of culture but 

 what is in some way useful to the cultivator, whether 

 he may happen to be aware of its use or not not- 

 withstanding this, the cat-bird is one of those species 

 which meet with no protection, or even with cold 

 and passive neglect ; for it is one which the people 

 of* the States eagerly destroy, without being able to 

 give any reason lor their proceeding, or indeed know- 

 ing anything about the matter. It does not appear 

 that this ignorant persecution has the smallest in- 

 fluence upon the number of the birds ; for, in spite of 

 it, they are multiplying in all parts of the country, 

 while many of the races which do not meet with the 

 same annoyance are diminishing in numbers. It is 

 true that the birds are great plunderers of the pro- 

 duce of the gardens, and always ready to take the 

 earliest and the best. This is plain and palpable ; 

 and the good which the birds may do, as a set-off" 

 against these depredations, is by no means so appa- 

 rent. It is even so with our conduct towards man- 

 kind. He who takes to the amount of more than 

 twenty shillings in a dwelling-house is a thief, and in 

 peril of the merited gallows ; but he who has pre- 

 vented thousands of pounds from going to the comfort 

 of dwelling-houses, by standing, in one of the many 

 ways in which people can so stand between his fellow 

 creatures and the honest earning of their bread, may, 

 if he is rich, be the very best man in a country. 



The cat-bird suffers not a little from the snakes, 

 which are so abundant in many parts of America. 

 The nest is in general near the ground, and the 

 snakes steal upon it and devour the contents. If the 

 male bird sees the snake, however, he instantly gives 

 battle ; and, though he is not perhaps so ardent and 

 determined a warrior as the mocking bird, he is very 

 often victorious. Considering the rapidity with which 

 poisonous snakes start from their coil, and the cer- 

 tainty with which they strike, it is astonishing how 

 dexterously these birds avoid the blow in their com- 

 bats. We believe, however, that it is only during 

 the breeding season that the valour of the birds is 

 wound up to this pitch ; and the boldness and cer- 

 tainty with which birds of naturally timid disposition 

 and harmless manners beat oft', without any formidable 

 arms, animals stronger than themselves, and armed 

 expressly for destruction, shows how much mere 

 energy can triumph over the most formidable mecha- 

 nical opposition. 



WOOD THRUSH (T. melodus}. This is another 

 American species, partially migratory like the two 

 former, and nearly at the same seasons, but its ap- 

 pearance and locality are different. Both of the pre- 

 ceding on^s would be blackbirds or merles, if we were 

 to make the distinction pointed out by our typical 

 birds ; and this one would be a thrush, as it has the 

 under part mottled like our song thrush. This is the 

 song thrush of the American forests, and it is really 

 much more of a forest bird than those which resemble 

 the blackbirds ; for they are rather bush birds or 

 brake birds. 



This species is smaller than our thrushes, though 

 some of the American ones are still smaller. The 

 length is eight inches, and the stretch of the wings 

 thirteen. The bill is an inch long, bent and notched 

 at the tip of the upper mandible, and brown save the 

 base of the lower mandible, and that is flesh-coloured. 

 The legs, which are long, are also flesh-coloured, but 

 a shade lighter. All the upper parts are tawny 

 brown, passing into reddish brown on the top of the 

 head, and into olive ash colour on the rump and tail ; 

 the chin, throat, and breast white, the last with a 

 tinge of buff" colour, and finely mottled with dusky 

 black, running in chains of spots from the gape, which 

 chains intersect each other on the breast and belly. 

 The lower belly and the vent feathers are)pure white ; 

 the eyes large, clear, and black, and surrounded by a 

 white circle, and an iris of chocolate red round the 

 black pupil ; the gape yellow. The male and female 

 birds are very like each other in appearance. 



These birds range very extensively along the con- 

 tinent of North America, being found all the way 

 from the Floridas to Canada, and even to Hudson's 

 Bay. In the extreme north they are wholly migra- 

 tory, and in the south they are stationary, and the 

 characters are of course mixed in the middle latitudes. 

 These thrushes are shy and retiring birds, not often 

 quitting the woods, and are only solitary or in pairs. 

 The male bird is a pleasant songster, and continues 

 to sing in those gloomy states of the weather when 

 most other birds are mute. The song is begun early 

 in the morning, ceases in the heat of the day, and is 

 resumed again in the evening. The song is often 

 delivered from an elevated perch, the summit of the 

 tallest tree in the grove, and two of the birds so 

 perched will often sing with strenuous rivalry against 

 each other. 



The nest, as in most of the thrushes, is usually 

 situated near the ground, in a low and sheltered situa- 

 tion, by the bank of a small stream where the herbage 

 is luxuriant ; and the nest is concealed in a thick 

 bush. Withered leaves form the first or basal layer 

 of the nest, and above these there is a frame-work of 

 small twigs and stems, well plastered with mud, and 

 last of all a lining of fine vegetable fibres. The eggs 

 are four in number, or more rarely five, of a pale 

 bluish colour without any mottlings. Berries in the 

 season when they are abundant, and larvae and beetles 

 in the summer, appear to be the principal food of 

 these birds. 



THE ROBIN (T. migratorius). The epithet which 

 has been given as the specific name of this bird shows 

 how unwise it is to name any bird after a particular 

 habit ; for it is one of the least migratory of all the 

 thrushes of America, at least in so far as migration 

 in latitude is concerned. Its migration is towards 

 the coast in the winter, and back into the interior in 

 the summer, and even this applies but to a very small 



