146 THRUSH. 



ground in the woods in spring-, when the grass has been recently 

 burned; is a gentle bird, and said to be very numerous in Nova 

 Scotia in the spring-, probably on the journey more northward ; some 

 few pairs, however, are found to stay through the summer. At Hud- 

 son's Bay it is called the Redbird : the Indian name, Pee-pee-chue. 

 It is by most people esteemed for the table. — In Mr. Bullock's 

 Museum are two specimens, neither of which has any white in 

 the tail. 



192.— THENCA THRUSH. 



Tnrdus Thenca, Lid. Orn. i. 339. Molin. Chil. 221. Id. (Fr. ed.) 231. 



■ Orpheus, Gin. Lin. i. 813. y. 



Le Calandria, proprement dit, Voy. d'Azara, iii. No. 223 ? 



Thenca Thrush, Gen. Syn. Sup. ii. 178. Shaw's Zool. x. 215. 



SIZE of the Mocking Thrush. Bill, irides, and legs brown ; 

 general colour of the plumage cinereous, spotted with brown and 

 white ; breast and belly pale grey ; quills and tail white at the ends. 



Inhabits Chili : makes a cylindrical nest, defended on the outside 

 with thorns, within lined with wool and feathers, with a small 

 entrance on one side ; lays four white eggs, spotted with brown. 



By some this bird is supposed to be a Variety of the Mocking 

 Thrush, or next Species ; but as this cannot be precisely determined, 

 it had better remain separated, leaving the reader to form his own 

 judgment. 



This comes very near the Calandria of Azara, which is much 

 valued as a song-bird, and said to be a very common, as well as tame 

 species, for it will often enter rooms, and partake of what food it 

 finds there, if not disturbed: the nest is usually made on the Opuntia, 

 and sometimes in a bush, formed of dry grass, lined within with fine 

 filaments of roots ; lays three or four eggs, greenish white, mixed 

 with brown, and spotted with darker brown : has no song, except 

 in breeding time, but then is thought very agreeable. 



