24 WOOD THRUSH. 



feed, as the Mistle Thrush, Turdus viscivorus, is said to do on those of 

 Viscum album. It is found in almost every part of the United Spates, 

 growing chiefly on oaks and apple-trees. 



WOOD THRUSH. 



■f Turdus mustelinus, Gmel. 

 PLATE CXLIV.— Male and Female. 



Kind reader, you now see before you my greatest favourite of the feathered 

 tribes of our woods. To it I owe much. How often has it revived my 

 drooping spirits, when I have listened to its wild notes in the forest, after 

 passing a restless night in my slender shed, so feebly secured against the 

 violence of the storm, as to shew me the futility of my best efforts to 

 rekindle my little fire, whose uncertain and vacillating light had gradually 

 died away under the destructive weight of the dense torrents of rain that 

 seemed to involve the heavens and the earth in one mass of fearful murkiness, 

 save when the red streaks of the flashing thunderbolt burst on the dazzled 

 eye, and, glancing along the huge trunk of the stateliest and noblest tree in 

 my immediate neighbourhood, were instantly followed by an uproar of 

 crackling, crashing, and deafening sounds, rolling their volumes in tumultu- 

 ous eddies far and near, as if to silence the very breathings of the unformed 

 thought! How often, after such a night, when far from my dear home, and 

 deprived of the presence of those nearest to my heart, wearied, hungry, 

 drenched, and so lonely and desolate as almost to question myself why I was 

 thus situated, when I have seen the fruits of my labours on the eve of being 

 destroyed, as the water, collected into a stream, rushed through my little 

 camp, and forced me to stand erect, shivering in a cold fit like that of a 

 severe ague, when I have been obliged to wait with the patience of a martyr 

 for the return of day, trying in vain to destroy the tormenting moschettoes, 

 silently counting over the years of my youth, doubting perhaps if ever again 

 I should return to my home, and embrace my family! — how often, as the 

 first glimpses of morning gleamed doubtfully amongst the dusky masses of 

 the forest-trees, has there come upon my ear, thrilling along the sensitive 

 cords which connect that organ with the heart, the delightful music of this 



