RED-BREASTED THRUSH. 185 



The most verdant lawns and cultivated glades of 

 Europe — the most beautiful productions of art, fail in 

 producing that exhilaration and joyous buoyancy of mind, 

 which we have experienced in treading the wilds of 

 Arctic America, when that snowy covering has been just 

 replaced by an infant but vigorous vegetation. It is 

 impossible for the traveller to refrain at such moments 

 from joining his aspiration to the song, which every 

 creature around is pouring forth to the Great Creator." 



The Red-breasted Thrush migrates in greater or less 

 flocks at the end of summer. It is interesting to re- 

 flect upon the marvellous power of that instinct which 

 impels a bird like this into the cold regions of the far 

 north, where the food necessary for the support of its 

 young is stdl under the frozen snow. 



The male in summer has the superior parts and sides 

 of the head covered with black feathers, having the 

 margin fuscous inclining to olive; on each side of the 

 head, between the beak and the eye, is a small white 

 spot. The upper part of the neck, body, and upper 

 tail coverts of a blackish brown; front of the neck 

 white, longitudinally marked with blackish streaks ; chest 

 and abdomen of a very light russet; lower belly of a 

 pure white; under tail coverts brown, spotted with 

 white; free edge of the eyelids white. Wings like the 

 mantle, with the lesser coverts bordered with ash-colour ; 

 primaries and tail quills brown, also edged with ash- 

 colour, the outer end of these last terminating on the 

 inside with a white spot, and the following one by a 

 border of the same colour. 



Males in autumn are of a more green tint above, 

 and all the red feathers of the inferior parts end in 

 whitish. 



Female in summer plumage is of a more ashy tint 



VOL. i. 2 c 



