WOOD THRUSH. 15 
WOOD lT'HRUSH.—TURDUS MELODUS.—Fic. 4. 
Bartram, p. 290.— Peale’s Musewm, No. 5264. 
TURDUS MUSTELINUS.—Guxun. 
Turdus mustelinus, Gm. Linn, ii. 817, No. 57. — Bonap. Synop. P- 75.— Penn. 
Arct. Zool. ii. p. 337. — The Wood Trush, Aud. p. 372. | 
Particunar attention has been paid to render the figure of this bird 
a faithful likeness of the original in Wilson’s edi ton. It measures 
eight inches in length, and thirteen from tip to1 » of the expanded 
wings; the bill is an inch long; the upper mandible, of a dusky brown, 
bent at the point, and slightly notched; the lower, a flesh color 
towards the base; the legs are long, and, as well as the claws, of a 
pale flesh color, or almost transparent. The whole upper parts are 
of a brown fulvous color, brightening into reddish on the head, and 
inclining to an olive on the rump and tail; chin, white; throat and 
breast, white, tinged with a light buff color, and beautifully marked 
high resentment in its eye, which nothing -would allay but a cessation of the 
lence. : 
“ One afternoon, I left this bird in a cage with a recently-caught Red-Bird, on the 
piazza under my open chamber window, and on my return towards evening I found 
my Oriole in my chamber perched and pcecring out from under the collar of one of 
my dresses, (which was its usual custom when I left it at liberty during my ab- 
sence,) and the Red-Bird gone. : : 
- “The next day, I put my Oriole out again in the same cage, and then learned 
how Ilost my Red-Bird. ‘The door, or entrance to-the cage, was made of five or six 
round sticks that passed through some holes on one side of the opening, into some 
holes on the other side, very much, if not exactly, like a farmer’s bars, which let down 
one after the other. About five o’clock, I observed my bird trying to draw my 
attention to its wants, which were to come into the room. As I did not immediately 
attend to it, I saw it go down to the ‘ bars,”. and, while it held on to the side of the 
cage, it took the “ bars” in its mouth and moved them, until it had got two or three 
down, thus making an opening large enough to allow it to come into the chamber. 
“ This bird made many journeys with me, and always appeared to be happy and 
contented could it be near me, although shut op in a cage six inches long, and eight 
or ten inches high and wide, with a green cloth covering, drawn together at top 
with tape, leaving an opening for it to look out and see me, and receive little 
crumbs, &c. It flew, at one time, from fright, out of the ladies’ cabin in the steam- 
boat, just before starting for Albany, up into,the city of New York, and no one on 
board could tell which way the bird went. My husband, who knew how much the 
habits of the bird had been changed by domestication, thought it must have taken 
refuge in the first open dwelling ; and so it proved, for it had fown up the street, aint 
entered a new building, the windows ohwhich were unglazed. At another time, « 
Portsmouth, N. H., it flew away, and nore could say where it went; butwe regained 
it by looking into the nearest open building, which was a livery stable, where we 
found the bird standing on the stall between two horses. 
“Tn sickness, when Ihave been confined to the bed, my bird would visit my pillow 
many times during the coy, often creeping under ihe bed-clothes to me. At such 
times it always appeared depressed and low spirited. When it wanted to bathe, it 
would approach me with a very expressive look, and shake its wings. On my re- 
turn home from a cal: or visit, it would invariably show its pleasure by a peculiar 
sound. 
“8 P. A. MESSER. 
“Connecticut River VALt ty, 
: “July 10, 1839.” 
