WOOD THRUSH. 19 
scription, what particular species is meant; or whether it be really 
intended for the Wood Thrush we are now describing. It resembles, 
he says, the English Thrush ; but is less, never sings, has only a single 
note, and abides all the year in Carolina. It must be confessed that, 
except the first circumstance, there are few features of the Wood 
Thrush in this description. I have searched the woods of Carolina 
and Georgia, in winter, for this bird in vain, nor do I believe it ever 
winters in these states. If Mr. Catesby found his bird mute during 
spring and summer, it was not the Wood Thrush, otherwise he must 
have changed his very nature. But Mr. Edwards has also described 
and delineated the little Thrush,* and has referred to Catesby as having 
drawn and engraved it before. Now, this Thrush of Edwards I know 
to be really a different species; one not resident in Pennsylvania, but 
passing to the north in May, and returning the same way in October, 
and may be distinguished from the true Song Thrush (T'urdus melodus) 
by the spots being much broader, brown, and not descending below 
the breast. It is also an inch shorter, with the cheeks of a bright 
tawny color. Mr. William Bartram, who transmitted this bird, more 
than fifty years ago, to Mr. Edwards, by whom it was drawn and en- 
graved, examined the two species in my presence ; and on comparing 
them with the one in Edwards, was satisfied that the bird there fig- 
ured and described is not the Wood Thrush, (T'urdus melodus,) but the 
tawny-cheeked species above mentioned. This I have never seen in 
Pennsylvania but in spring and fall. It is still more solitary than the 
former, and utters, at rare times, a single cry, similar to that of a 
chicken which has lost its mother. This very bird I found numerous 
in the myrtle swamps of Carolina in the depth of winter, and I have 
not a doubt of its being the same which is described by Edwards and 
Catesby. 
As the Count de Buffon has drawn his description from those above 
mentioned, the same observations apply equally to what he has said 
on the subject; and the fanciful theory which this writer had formed 
to account for its want of song, vanishes into empty air; viz. that the 
Song Thrush of Europe (T'urdus musicus) had, at some time after the 
creation, rambled round by the Northern Ocean, and made its way to 
America; that, advancing to the south, it had there (of consequence) 
become degenerated by change of food and climate, so that its cry is 
now harsh and unpleasant, “as are the cries of all birds that live in 
wild countries inhabited by savages.” } 
* EpWarps, 296. 
+ Burron, vol. iii. 289. The figure in Pl. enl. 398 has little or no resemblance 
to the Wood Thrush, being of a deep green olive above, and spc tted to the tail below 
with long streaks of brown. 
