OF THE UNITED STATES 301 



ground was carpeted with an hundred and one plants or mosses, 

 and other " things that growin the woods," upon which it seemed 

 almost a sacrilege to step, or crush beneath one's feet. 



Hope of finding the object of my search had been abandoned, 

 although the female bird had been flushed. In turning to retrace 

 my steps homeward, I chanced to peer among the trees that tim- 

 bered a considerable hollow directly below where I stood. The 

 sun poured its generous rays down in there, and the new, fresh 

 leaves of the half-grown maples appeared almost a livid green, 

 as, motionless, they seemed really to revel in the warm solar 

 bath. Thirty feet or more beyond me there flourished a particu- 

 larly handsome tree of this kind, and as I gazed at it in my admi- 

 ration of its sylvan beauty, my eye caught the sight of a new- 

 made nest in its first fork, and upon this sat its owner, that most 

 winning of all the thrushes known to me, the Wood Thrush. With 

 her great, warm eyes she watched my every movement, and I, in 

 turn, enjoyed to the fullest extent her avian charms. No wonder 

 her mate had fallen in love with her, for was ever a creamy white 

 breast more elegantly dappled with great, round, brown spots, 

 any one of which would vie with the mole upon the alabaster 

 shoulder of the veriest Venus alive; or did the sun ever shine 

 upon a back of any rarer, or any richer russet than hers? She 

 permitted me to come very close to her, but then taking alarm, 

 she appeared in an instant upon the edge of her nest, and in the 

 next moment darted through the trees and was gone. 



Passing my hand into her warm nest, I found it to contain 

 three eggs of a uniform light blue color, and without any further 

 disturbance I withdrew. On another day the spot was revisited 

 by me, and this time my lady exhibited a far greater degree of 

 concern, and her cries soon " called the neighbors in." There 

 were now two callow nestlings in the place of the three eggs for- 

 merly seen; and they crouched very low, and, side by side, were 

 as rigid as two lifeless little models during my entire examina- 

 tion of them. 



Lifting one of these turdine babies out, by seizing hold of its 

 delicate flesh-colored legs, its entire demeanor at once changed, 

 for 'twixt struggles, squeals, and squalls, it raised a merry row, 

 that at least had the effect of causing the parents and their sym- 

 pathizers to redouble their bewailments, and so far excite my 

 compassion that I soon replaced the little scamp in the nest. 



A few days after this event I was enabled to get a fine photo- 



