TURDUS RUFUS. 
116 
resides near Tarrytown, on the hanks of the Hndso®’ 
informed me, that she raised and kept one of these bn' ^ 
for seventeen years ; which sung as well, and lo®^* 
as sprightly, at that age as ever ; but was at last unf® 
tunately destroyed by a cat. The morning is th^' 
favourite lime for song'. In psissing through the str^*^.! 
of our large cities, on Sunday, iu the months of Ap’'^ 
and May, a little after daybreak, the general 
which usually prevails without at that hour, will enik 
you to distinguish every house where one of tb^ 
songsters resides, as he makes it then ring with »' 
music. , 
Not only the plumage of the robin, as of many otb 
birds, is subject to slight periodical changes of col®'' ' 
but even the legs, feet, and bill; the latter, in the 
being frequently found tipt and ridged for half its 
with black. In the depth of winter their plumag® i 
generally best ; at which time the full grown b®^ 
appears in his most perfect dress. 
93. TUBDUS BUFBS, UNNJEUS AND WILSON. 
FERHUGINOUS THRDSH. 
WILSON, PLATE XIV. FIG. I. 
This is the brown thrush, or thrasher of the nii'^'^^f 
and eastern States ; and the French mocking bird* j 
Maryland, Virginia, and the Carolinas. It is the 
of all our thrushes, and is a well known aud 
distinguished songster. About the middle, or 20tb ^ 
April, or generally about the time the cherry 
begin to blossom, he arrives in Pennsylvania ; and f®'’^ 
the tops of our hedgerows, sassafras, apple or 
trees, he salutes the opening morning with his cbariD'^j 
song, which is loud, emphatical, ami full of variety- 
that serene hour, you may jilainly distinguish his ^ 
full half a mile off. These notes are not iinitativ*’ 
See article Mocking Bird, for the supposeil origin of this 
is a'®'" 
