256 Autumn Hunting [FIRST WEEK 



at the beautifully rounded form perched on the twig, which 

 a wanton shot would destroy forever. The rich rufous 

 colouring of the tail proclaims him a singer of singers a 

 hermit thrush. We must be on the watch these days for 

 the beautiful wood thrush, the lesser spotted veery, the 

 well named olive-back and the rarer gray-cheeked thrush. 

 We may look in vain among the thrushes in our bird books 

 for the golden-crowned and water thrush, for these walkers 

 of the woods are thrushes only in appearance, and belong 

 to the family of warblers. The long- tailed brown thrashers, 

 lovers of the undergrowth, are still more thrush-like in 

 look, but in our classifications they hold the position of 

 giant cousins to the wrens. Even the finches contribute 

 a mock thrush to our list, the big, spotted-breasted fox 

 sparrow, but he rarely comes in numbers before mid 

 October or November. Of course we all know that our 

 robin is a true thrush, young robins having their breasts 

 thickly spotted with black, while even the old birds retain 

 a few spots and streaks on the throat. 



If we search behind the screen of leaves and grass 

 around us we may discover many tragedies. One fall I 

 picked up a dead olive-backed thrush in the Zoological 

 Park. There were no external signs of violence, but I 

 found that the food canal was pretty well filled with blood. 

 The next day still another bird was found in the same 

 condition, and the day after two more. Within a week I 

 noted in my journal eight of these thrushes, all young birds 

 of the year, and all with the same symptoms of disorder. 

 I could only surmise that some poisonous substance, some 

 kind of berry, perhaps some attractive but deadly exotic 



