28 TAWNY THRUSH. 



or clay. The eggs, which are deposited early in June, are from four to six, 

 and resemble those of the Cat-bird in colour and shape, but are of smaller 

 size. They raise only one brood in the season. The parents, ever extremely 

 shy, shew no desire to assist their young, or defend their nest from intruders, 

 but remain during your visit at some distance, uttering a mournful and angry 

 quake, somewhat resembling that of the Cat-bird on such occasions. The 

 Cow Bunting not unfrequently deposits its egg in the nest of this Thrush, 

 where it is hatched, and the young brought up with all imaginable care. In 

 the neighbourhood of the city of Boston, some of these birds, according to 

 my learned friend Nuttall, breed sometimes in the gardens, and he has 

 known of a nest placed in a gooseberry bush. A full fledged young one 

 that was caught and placed in a cage, retained the unsocial and silent timidity 

 peculiar to the species. The males are obstinate in their quarrels, and fight 

 with great fierceness in maintaining their right to the ground which they 

 have appropriated to themselves. 



The song of this species, although resembling that of the Wood Thrush 

 in a great degree, is less powerful, and is composed of continued trills 

 repeated with different variations, enunciated with, great delicacy and 

 mellowness, so as to be extremely pleasing to one listening to them in the 

 dark solitudes where the sylvan songster resides. It now and then tunes its 

 throat in the calm of evening, and is heard sometimes until after the day 

 has closed. 



It searches for food even at those hours, and feeds principally on 

 coleopterous insects. In Labrador it also picks the tender blossoms of 

 several dwarf plants, and feeds on berries. Its time is, for the most part, 

 spent on the ground, where it moves with singular agility by leaps, stopping 

 instantaneously and standing erect for a few moments, as if apprehending 

 danger, but immediately renewing its course. 



The specimen presented in the plate was procured and drawn in the State 

 of Maine. 



All the Thrushes examined, as well as the Shrikes, Warblers, Flycatchers, 

 Swallows, in short all the land birds, have a pair of muscles proceeding from 

 the sides of the thyroid cartilage, to be inserted into some part of the furcula. 

 In all the Thrushes, the right lobe of the liver is larger than the left, under 

 which it passes in the form of a thin expanded lobe; and there is no gall- 

 bladder. 



Tawny Thrush, Turdus mustelinus, Wils. Amer. Orn., vol. v. p. 98. 

 Turdus Wilsonh, Bonap. Syn., p. 76. 



Merdla minor (Swainson), Little Tawny Thrush, Swains, and Rich. F. Bor. Amer., 

 vol. ii. p. 179, Plate 36. The description and figure clearly refer to the present species. 



