28 WOOD THRUSH. 



and has referred to Catesby as having drawn and engraved it 

 before. Now this thrush of Edwards I know to be really a 

 different species; one not resident in Pennsylvania, but pass- 

 ing to the north in May, and returning the same way in 

 October, and may be distinguished from the true song thrush 

 {Turdus melodus) by the spots being much broader, brown, 

 and not descending so far below the breast. It is also an 

 inch shorter, with the cheeks of a bright tawny colour. Mr 

 William Bartram, who transmitted this bird, more than fifty 

 years ago, to Mr Edwards, by whom it was drawn and 

 engraved, examined the two species in my presence ; and on 

 comparing them with the one in Edwards, was satisfied that 

 the bird there figured and described is not the wood thrush 

 {Ttirdus melodus), but the tawn} T -cheeked species above men- 

 tioned. This I have never seen in Pennsylvania but in spring 

 and fall. It is still more solitary than the former, and utters, 

 at rare times, a single cry, similar to that of a chicken which 

 has lost its mother. This very bird I found numerous in the 

 myrtle swamps of Carolina in the depth of winter, and I have 

 not a doubt of its being the same which is described by 

 Edwards and Catesby. 



As the Count de Btiffon has drawn his description from those 

 above mentioned, the same observations apply equally to what 

 he has said on the subject ; and the fanciful theory which this 

 writer had formed to account for its want of song, vanishes 

 into empty air ; viz., that the song thrush of Europe {Turdus 

 musicus), had, at some time after the creation, rambled round 

 by the northern ocean, and made its way to America; that, 

 advancing to the south, it had there (of consequence) become 

 degenerated by change of food and climate, so that its cry is 

 now harsh and unpleasant, " as are the cries of all birds that 

 live in wild countries inhabited by savages."* 



* Buffon, vol. iii. 289. The figure in PI. enl. 398, has little or no 

 resemblance to the wood thrush, being of a deep green olive above, and 

 spotted to the tail below with long streaks of brown. 



