338 THE MOUNTAIN. 



a common bird, and a universally welcomed visitor. A grace- 

 ful and comely creature, with kind and friendly affinities for 

 man, he is almost domestic in his habits. He approaches 

 frankly and fearlessly houses and barns, building his nest 

 often in the most exposed situations, on a fence or in the 

 fork of an apple-tree, seeming by a gallant confidence to 

 appeal to the generosity and magnanimity of man for pro- 

 tection. As a destroyer of noxious insects his services are 

 invaluable, and the number of worms, slugs, and bugs de- 

 voured by him is incredible, as he vigorously bolts enormous 

 quantities from morning till night. He has a sweet and 

 touching song, which, however, has not much variety. A 

 delightful enchanter of the field, his name carries the dream- 

 ing soul to sights and sounds of the country, the flowery 

 meadow, the running brook, the blossoming orchard, all 

 made divine by the song of the beautiful robin. His range 

 is the "continent, from Hudson's Bay, in the fifty-third de- 

 gree, to the table-land of Mexico." He is amoDg the first 

 arrivals on the mountain, and appears often before the snows 

 have gone, in flocks, with other birds, on the northward pas- 

 sage. The young and old both return to the same summer 

 haunts visited in previous migrations. 



MERULA Mustelina, (Gm.) Wood thrush. This is a 

 plain little brown bird, beneath white, " spotted with black- 

 ish." He is solitary and shy, retreating to the depths of wil- 

 dernesses, far from human habitations and noise of towns. His 

 song is one of the most attractive and melodious sounds of 

 the forest, and is frequently the only voice heard in the deep, 

 silent expanse of the woods. " The prelude to this song re- 

 sembles almost the double-tonguing of the flute, blended with 

 a tinkling shrill and solemn warble, which re-echoes from his 

 solitary retreat like the dirge of some sad recluse who shuns 

 the busy haunts of life." These strange, wild, liquid flutings, 

 rising from the depths of leafy recesses, possess a pecu- 

 liar power of exciting delicious and melancholy emotions 

 which, once having thrilled the heart, leave forever the 

 memory of solitudes sacred to thought and feeling, of re- 



