WOOD THRUSH. 15 
WOOD THRUSH.— TURDUS MELODUS. — Fic. 4. 
Bartram, p. 290.— Peale’s Museum, No. 5264. 
TURDUS MUSTELINUS, — Gmuetin. 
Turdus mustelinus, Gm. Linn. ii. 817, No. 57. — Bonap. Synop. ii 15.— Penn. 
Arct. Zool. ii..p. 337. — The Wood Trush, Aud. p. 372. 
Particunar attention has been paid to render the figure of this bird 
2. faithful likeness of the original in Wilson’s edition. It measures 
eight inches in length, and thirteen from tip to tip 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 wel] 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 
ence. 
“ 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 peering out from under the collar of one of 
my dresses, peeve 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 I lost 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 ofthe 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 theroom. 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 up 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, &ec. 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 flown up the street, and 
entered a new building, the windows of which were unglazed. At another time, in 
Portsmouth, N.H., it flew away, and none could = where it went; but we 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. 
“ In sickness, when I have been confined to the bed, my bird would visit my pillow 
many times during the dey, often creeping under the 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 call or visit, it would invariably show its pleasure by a peculiar 
sound. 
P. A. MESSER. 
“ ConnecTicuT R1ivER VAELEY,~ 
“July 10, 1839.” 
