FERRUGINOUS MOCKING-BIRD. XI 



care in a briar bush, a sumach, or the thickest parts of a low tree, never in 

 the interior of the forest, but most commonly in the bramble patches which 

 are every where to be met with along the fences or the abandoned old fields. 

 Sometimes it is laid flat on the ground. Although the bird is abundant in 

 the barrens of Kentucky, in which and in similar places it seems to delight, 

 it has seldom been known to breed there. In the Southern States the nest 

 is frequently found close to the house of the planter, along with that of the 

 Mocking-bird. To the eastward, where the denseness of the population 

 renders the bird more shy, the nest is placed with more care. But wherever 

 it is situated, you find it large, composed externally of dry twigs, briars, or 

 other small sticks, imbedded in and mixed with dried leaves, coarse grass, 

 and other such materials, thickly lined with fibrous roots, horse hair, and 

 sometimes rags and feathers. The eggs are from four to six, of a pale dull 

 buff colour, thickly sprinkled with dots of brown. Two broods are usually 

 raised in the Southern States, but rarely more than one in the Middle and 

 Northern Districts. 



They breed well in aviaries, and are quite tractable in a closer state of 

 confinement. The young are raised in the same manner, and with the same 

 food, as those of the Mocking-bird. In cages it sings well, and has much of 

 the movements of the latter bird, being full of activity, petulant, and 

 occasionally apt to peck in resentment at the hand which happens to 

 approach it. The young begin their musical studies in autumn, repeating 

 passages with as much zeal as ever did Paganini. By the following spring 

 their full powers of song are developed. 



My friend Bachman, who has raised many of these birds, has favoured me 

 with the following particulars respecting them: — "Though good-humoured 

 towards the person who feeds them, they are always savage towards all other 

 kinds of birds. I placed three sparrows in the cage of a Thrush one evening, 

 and found them killed, as well as nearly stripped of their feathers, the next 

 morning. So perfectly gentle did this bird become, that when I opened its 

 cage, it would follow me about the yard and the garden. The instant it saw 

 me take a spade or a hoe, it would follow at my heels, and, as I turned up 

 the earth, would pick up every insect or worm thus exposed to its view. I 

 kept it for three years, and its affection for me at last cost it its life. It 

 usually slept on the back of my chair, in my study, and one night the door 

 being accidentally left open, it was killed by a cat. I once knew a few of 

 these birds remain the whole of a mild winter in the State of New York, in 

 a wild state." 



The Brown or Ferruginous Thrush is the strongest of the genus in the 

 United States, neither the Mocking-bird nor the Robin being able to cope 

 with it. Like the former, it will chase the cat or the dog, and greatly tease 



