308 THE WOOD THRUSH. 



the tones are flute-like, if indeed they can be compared to 

 any instrument; a variety of brief tinkles, trills, triplets and 

 warbles, on main chords, intermediates and chromatics, fol- 

 lowing each other in close but rather slow succession, in 

 every possible key, cadence and inflection, with a peculiar 

 shake on a low key every now and then thrown in; the whole 

 suggesting the idea of a solemn but happy and tender train of 

 meditation; the bird sings as if in a delightful reverie. 

 From the time of his arrival till late in June, or even in 

 July, his peculiar melody may be heard at almost any time 

 of day, but especially early in the morning and late in the 

 evening. Never shall I forget how, once at the dawn of 

 day, as I lay in my hammock high up under the thick shade 

 of two great forest trees, the notes of the Wood Thrush 

 were the first to break the stillness of the receding night. 

 Faintly, but oh! how sweetly, they broke upon the air in the 

 tree-top just above me. Louder and louder were the liquid 

 strains, until the silent isles of the thick forest echoed to 

 their delightful cadences, and all the songsters in the vicinity 

 woke up and gave forth their united response. Nothing 

 is more characteristic of our beautiful forests, at the close of 

 day, than the melody of this great woodland artist — this 

 Beethoven among birds. 



Not peculiar to the streams and wet places merely, as 

 implied by both Wilson and Audubon, but exceedingly 

 common as a summer resident throughout the woods, the 

 Wood Thrush builds his nest in this locality late in May or 

 early in June, in the crotch of a sappling, or on the horizon- 

 tal limb of a large tree, anywhere from V to 15 feet from the 

 ground. The structure, strongly resembling that of the 

 Robin, consists outwardly of dried leaves, coarse weed- 

 stalks, grasses, rootlets, etc., plastered together with mud, 

 and lined with rootlets for the most part, the lining often 



