FERRUGINOUS THRUSH. 103 



return to the south about the beginning of October, having been absent 

 fully six months from that genial region, where more than half of the 

 whole number remain at all seasons. They migrate by day, and singly, 

 never congregating, notwithstanding their abundance. They fly low, or 

 skip from one bush to another, their longest flight seldom exceeding the 

 breadth of a field or river. They seem to move rather heavily, on ac- 

 count of the shortness of their wings, the concavity of which usually pro- 

 duces a rustling sound, and they travel very silently. 



No sooner has the bird reached its destined abode, than whenever a 

 fair morning occurs, it mounts the topmost twig of a detached tree, and 

 pours forth its loud, richly varied, and highly melodious song. It 

 scarcely possesses the faculty of imitation, but is a steady performer ; and, 

 although it sings for hours at a time, seldom, if ever, commits errors whUe 

 repeating the beautiful lessons set to it by Nature, all of which it studies 

 for months during spring and summer. Ah ! reader, that I could repeat 

 to you its several cadences, all so full of sweetness and melody, that one 

 might imagine each last trill, as it dies on the ear, the careful lullaby of 

 some blessed mother chanting her babe to repose ; — that I could imitate 

 its loudest notes, surpassed only by those of that unrivalled vocalist, the 

 Mocking Bird ! But, alas ! it is impossible for me to convey to you the 

 charms of the full song of the Brown Thrush ; you must go to its own 

 woods and there Usten to it. In the southern districts, it now and then 

 enlivens the calm of autumnal days by its song, but it is generally silent 

 after the breeding season. 



The actions of this species during the period of courtship are very 

 curious, the male often strutting before the female with his tail trailing on 

 the ground, moving gracefully round her, in the manner of some pigeons, 

 and while perched and singing in her presence, vibrating his body with 

 vehemence. In Louisiana, the Brown Thrush builds its nest as early as 

 the beginning of March ; in the Middle Districts rarely before the middle 

 of May ; while in Maine, it seldom has it finished before June. It is 

 placed without much care in a briar bush, a sumach, or the thickest parts 

 of a low tree, never in the interior of the forest, but most commonly in the 

 bramble patches which are every where to be met with along the fences 

 or the abandoned old fields. Sometimes it is laid flat on the ground. 

 Although the bird is abundant in the barrens of Kentucky, in which and 

 in similar places it seems to delight, it has seldom been known to breed 

 there. In the Southern States the nest is frequently found close to the 



