THE YOUNG ORNITHOLOGIST. 



THE WOOD THRUSH. 



Hylocichla Mustelina. 



This species is of all Canadian 

 birds pre-eminent as a songster. Its 

 charming notes are first heard towards 

 the end of April, or in the early part 

 of May, if the weather is mild, and 

 its gladsome lays continue about three 

 months. But after the middle of 

 July, though the bird itself remains 

 in its woodland home until the 

 changeful autumn, with its night 

 frosts and chilly winds, has painted 

 the woodland with many a lovely hue, 

 its tuneful notes are seldom heard. 

 It is on a morning in June that the 

 most delightful songs of this bird are 

 poured forth. Long before the orb 

 of day can be seen in the eastern 

 horizon, while the gray twilight still 

 struggles with the morning mist, and 

 many of the twinkling stars are still 

 visible in the azure vault of heaven, 

 while the air is cool and the night 

 dew lies heavy on the verdant grass, 

 or drops down from the emerald foli- 

 age of the trees on the withered 

 leaves, and the woods and fields are 

 beginning to resound with the varied 

 warbhngs of other members of the 

 feathered race, it is then that the 

 musical talents of this woodland 

 songster are displayed to the best 

 advantage. Perched among the mid- 

 dle branches of some tree or under- 

 wood, he pours forth his charming 

 notes in strains of delightful melody, 

 to the astonishment of the rude back- 

 woodsman, and the delight of the 

 student of nature who may be abroad 

 at that early hour : often in his hur- 

 ried morning walk is the hardy pioneer 

 made to pause and listen to the en- 



rapturing lays of this wildwood mus- 

 ician. Sometimes he suddenly stops 

 in his usual song and gives utterance 

 to other wild notes ; but these are 

 most generally heard in the latter 

 part of summer, when his general 

 song is about to cease During the 

 warm part of the day the song of this 

 bird ceases, that period being devoted 

 to procuring food and to other duties; 

 but as the shades of evening gather in 

 the silent woods, and the sun is sink- 

 ing in the western sky, a farewell tune 

 is sung to its departing rays. Through 

 the hours of darkness the Wood 

 Thrush is silent, but his song is again 

 renewed at the first dawn of the 

 morning. The length of this bird is 

 between nine and ten inches ; its 

 color on the upper parts are cinna- 

 mon-brown ; beneath it is white, the 

 breast being beautifully spotted with 

 black. It feeds on insects, berries, 

 and occasionally on grain. The fe- 

 male builds her nest on the branch of 

 a tree or in the fork of an underwood, 

 generally not high from the ground. 

 The outside is formed of dry leaves 

 and stalks of weeds, plastered with 

 mud and lined with fine roots. The 

 set of eggs are four, and of a light- 

 green color. "This bird is found in 

 the woods or most parts of Ontario, 

 but delights in deep, shady hardwood- 

 timbered lands. It is a shy bird, and 

 rather shuns than approaches the 

 habitatijns of the pioneer or the bor- 

 ders of civilization, and is seldom 

 seen in the open fields, except in the 

 early spring, when it occasionally 

 visits orchards. It is a vevy affec- 

 tionate bird, strongly attached to its 

 nest and young, and when danger 

 menaces will expose itself, and exert 



