292 



HABITS OF BIRDS. 



Wood.thrush. 



own. Their voices may always be distinguished amid 

 the choristers of the copse, yet some one performer 

 will more particularly engage attention by a peculiar 

 modulation or tone ; and should several stations of 

 these birds be visited in the same morning, few or 

 none, probably, will be found to preserve the same 

 round of notes, whatever is uttered* seeming the 

 effusion of the moment. At times a strain will 

 break out perfectly unlike any preceding utterance, 

 and we may wait a long time without noticing any 

 repetition of it. During one spring an individual 

 song-thrush, frequenting a favourite copse, after a 

 certain round of tune, trilled out, most regularly, 

 some notes that conveyed so clearly the words, lady- 

 bird ! lady-bird ! that every one remarked the re- 

 semblance. He survived the winter, and in the 

 ensuing spring, the lady-bird ! lady-bird ! was still 

 the burden of our evening song ; it then ceased, and 



