A BI-MONTHLY MAGAZINE 

 DEVOTED TO THE STUDY AND PROTECTION OF BIRDS 



Official Organ of the Audubon Socicties 



Vol. IX May — June, 1907 No. 3 



A Sketch of the Thrushes of North America 



By JONATHAN DWIGHT, Jr., M. D. 



DAINTY of plumage and musical of voice, the Thrushes of North 

 America are perhaps the most delightful members of the great bird 

 population that spreads northward over the continent in spring, to 

 retreat far southw^ard again in autumn before the snow and ice of a northern 

 winter. Five species inhabit our country, all of them abundant, but so 

 silently do they accomplish their long migratory journeys, slipping along in 

 undergrowth and hedge-rows by day and winging their way far up in the 

 quiet sky by night, that, except for flashes of wings in the woods or mellow 

 calls borne on the night air, their presence may easily be overlooked until 

 they have settled for the brief summer in their breeding haunts. Then 

 truly it may be said that they "waste their sweetness on the desert air," for 

 two of them, the Hermit and the Olive-backed, vie in breaking the solemn 

 spell of silence that broods over the wilderness of the great north woods; 

 one, the Gray -cheeked, carries his music to the very shores of the Arctic 

 Ocean, and only two, — Wilson's and the Wood Thrush, — remain to pass the 

 summer in the more temperate and populated portions of the country, their 

 northern range scarcely reaching the northern borders of the United States. 

 In plumage the Thrushes are brown of different shades, the breast and 

 under parts white with dusky spotting and often suffused with buffs and 

 grays. They molt but once in the year, but, as they dwell mostly in shaded 

 seclusion, they do not fade as much as might be expected in a twelvemonth. 

 The field-student will do well to distinguish even the species, for the 

 geographical races or subspecies are not readily recognizable even with 

 specimens in hand for comparison and measurement. It is to be regretted 

 that so much effort has been expended in forcing names upon very slight 

 differences, because, in the confusion which arises, the very purpose for 

 which a name is given, convenience, is defeated. Here, I merely ask my 

 readers to remember that variation is of three kinds, — individual, when one 

 bird differs from his own relatives; seasonal, when plumage is affected by 

 molt and by wear; and geographical, when environment imposes characters 



