CHAPTER X. 



WOODLAND SINGERS — THE THRUSHES, VIEEO, AND 

 PEABODT BIRD. 



The plain-coated thrushes are our greatest singers. 

 Whoever has not heard them at the sunset hour, 

 while wheehng along the road in late spring or 

 early summer, has yet to hear the sweetest songs 

 of the sky. 



Wilson says little or nothing about the music of 



two or three singularly gifted members of the Thrush 



family, and it is particularly to these that I wish to 



draw attention. The Ttirclidm is a large family ; in 



one subdivision alone (the Turdinoe) there are quite 



one hundred and fifty species. One of the most 



familiar birds belonging to this division is the robin 



{Merula migratoria), who is quite a different bird 



from his thrush cousins, how greatly different we 



readily see upon making a general comparison. He 



is not a woodland bird. 



The robin's voice is pitched low, those of all the 

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