212 



THE WOOD THRUSH. 



had Ijeen set upon his head, but often comes forward — not too close — with a 

 pit of inc^uiry and greeting. 



The Wood Thrush spends considerable time on the ground looking for 

 beetles and worms, but he is ready at a moment's notice to flutter up on a 

 log or low branch, and stand there surveying 

 you, flirting, or twinkling, the wings occa- 

 sionally to indicate his perfect readiness for 

 furtlier retreat, or else ruffling and shaking 

 his feathers as tho to shake off the memory 

 of the mold. .\ false step now and he mav 

 disappear irrevocabl}' down some forest isle : 

 a quiet glance of admiration serves to reas- 

 sure him, and he may resume his feeding. 



There is an air of gentleness and good 

 breeding about the bird, which goes a long 

 way to disarm a wanton enemy, and one stu- 

 diously hostile there could not be. Brighter 

 than the other Thrushes in color, and marked 

 unmistakably with heavy spots upon breast 

 and sides, the Wood Thrush is further dis- 

 tinguished in a gifted family by its wonder- 

 ful voice. The chanting of the Wood Thrush 

 is one of the choice things in l)ird music. In 

 the freshness of the undried morning the T"!"-'" "c^r drcic'iiu-. 



bird mounts a low liml) and takes up a part oNii typk of nest."'' ""' ■'"""' 



m the grand anthem of nature, whose com- ims nest appears near the center cf 



1 , ■ , , THE illustration ON PACE 210. 



nlementary voices may be lost to any ear less 



fine than his. The bird listens to the retreating foot-steps of the morning stars, 

 and sings, ■•Far azuay—far cnvay." Zephyr stirs the unfolding leaves with 

 his l^oyish alto and our matchless tenor responds, "Coiiie to luc — Here in glee 

 —bide a zece." in cadences of surpassing sweetness. Altho the singer's voice 

 is rich and strijng, so that he may be heard at times for half a mile, there are 

 at tlie same time grace notes and finer passages which onlv a near-bv listener 

 can catch. The notes, I am told 1)y musical critics, are, of all ])ir<l notes, the 

 most nearly reduciljle to ordinary musical notation ; Init the peculiar timbre of 

 tlie l.)ird's voice, the rich vil)rant quality of the tones, is of course inimitable. 

 Their utterance at morning and evening is something more than a cle\ er musi- 

 cal ])erfr)rmance : it is worshii). 



