CHAPTER III 



The Wood Thrush: Hylocichla 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 sing- 

 ing the ecstatic passion song of 

 mating time. 



The embankment was fifteen 

 feet high and on either side of 

 it lay patches of swamp which grew giant forest trees and almost 

 impenetrable thickets of underbrush. There were masses of dog- 

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

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

 ivy clambered everywhere and the ground was covered with vio- 

 lets, 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 and the violets grew stems 

 a foot in length. A little creek wound a devious course through 



43 



NEST OF WOOD ROBIN, SHOWING 

 USE OF CAST SNAKE SKIN 



