MIGRATORY THRUSH. 35 



the chorus, their plumage as gay and unimpaired as when they 

 enlivened the deep green forests of tropical climates, that the return 

 of a northern spring excites in the mind a deep feeling of the beauties 

 of the season, a sense of the bounty and Providence of the Supreme 

 Being, which is cheaply purchased by the tedium of nine months 

 winter. 



The most verdant lawns and cultivated glades of Europe — the most 

 beautiful productions of art, fail in producing that exhilaration and 

 joyous buoyancy of mind, which we have experienced in treading the 

 wilds of Arctic America, when that snowy covering has been just 

 replaced by an infant but vigorous vegetation. It is impossible for 

 the traveller to refrain at such moments from joining his aspiration to 

 the song, which every creature around is jjouring forth to the Great 

 Creator." 



The E,ed-breasted Thrush migrates in greater or less flocks at the 

 end of summer. It is interesting to reflect upon the marvellous power 

 of that instinct which impels a bird like this into the cold regions of 

 the far north, where the food necessary for the support of its young 

 is still under the frozen snow. 



The male in summer has the superior parts and sides of the head 

 covered with black feathers, having the margin fuscous inclining to 

 olive; on each side of the head, between the beak and the eye, is a 

 small white spot. The upper part of the neck, body, and upper tail 

 coverts of a blackish brown: front of the neck white, longitudinally 

 marked with blackish streaks; chest and abdomen of a very light 

 russet; lower belly of a pure white; under tail coverts brown, spotted 

 with white; free edge of the eyelids white. Wings like the mantle, 

 with the lesser coverts bordered with ash-colour; primaries and tail 

 quills brown, also edged with ash-colour, the outer end of these last 

 terminating on the inside with a white spot, and the following one by 

 a border of the same colour. 



Males in autumn are of a more green tint above, and all the red 

 feathers of the inferior parts end in whitish. 



Female in summer plumage is of a more ashy tint above, and a 

 less bright red below, a part of the abdominal feathers ending in white, 

 those of the rump, wings, and tail visibly worn out. 



Young before the first moult. Upper parts blackish brown; of a 

 dull black on the head, with the spots and streaks reddish in the 

 centre of the feathers. The back, throat, and middle of the neck 

 white, slightly washed with russet; chest and abdomen of a bright red, 

 crossed with black spots at the extremity of the feathers; lower belly 

 white. Wing coverts of a lighter brown than the mantle; primaries 



