158 



USEFUL BIRDS. 



but seldom troubles cultivated varieties, 

 is a harmless and most useful species. 



Taken all in all, it 



Wood Thrush. Song Thrush. Wood Robin. 



Hylocichla mustelina. 

 Length. About eight inches. 

 Adult. Above, mostly cinnamon-brown, reddest on head ; eye ring white ; below, 



mainly white, with large, rounded, dark-brown spots on breast and sides. 

 Nest. On shrub sapling or low branch, six to ten feet up ; much like that of the 



Eobin, but usually composed of more woodsy material ; the mud is often 



replaced by leaf mold. 



Eggs. Usually four ; greenish-blue ; resembling those of the Robin, but smaller. 

 Season. May to September. 



The Wood Thrush is, as its name indicates, primarily a 

 bird of the woods, preferring the tall timber in some shady 

 dell, where pure floods from the never-failing springs of 

 the hills have gathered into a water course. 

 Here, where the rushing stream dallies on 

 its way among moss-grown rocks, where 

 the skunk cabbage grows, where rank 

 ferns and lush mosses hide the oozy 

 ground, and where great swamp 

 maples stand cool and tall, 

 the Wood Thrush loves to 

 dwell. Its apparent na- 

 tive modesty and retir- 

 ing disposition, its love 

 for shade and solitude, 

 seem to be prominent 

 characteristics of this 

 sylvan recluse. Still, of 

 recent years the bird is 

 often found about the haunts of men, particularly in places 

 where it is protected, and where large and clustering shade 

 trees afford it cool retreats. Its carriage as it hops or runs 

 upon the ground is somewhat like that of a Robin. Rather 

 sedentary in habit, it seems to be confined during the breed- 

 ing season to a limited area around its home, where its song 

 may be heard more or less at all hours, but mainly during the 

 cooler portions of the day, throughout the summer months. 



Fig. 47. Wood Thrush, two-thirds natural 

 size. 



