WILSON’S THRUSH. 
209 
almost similar to that of a lamb ; and when approached, watches 
and follows the intruder with an angry or petulant quciih 
queiih ; at other times a sort of mewing, melancholy, or com- 
plaining 'feow is heard, and then, perhaps, a hasty and 
impatient pciit peut follows. The food of this species, at least 
during the early part of summer, appears to be shelly insects of 
various kinds, particularly Chrysot 7 ielas, or lady-bugs, and those 
many legged hard worms of the genus lulus. 
A good while after the commencement of the period of in- 
cubation I have observed the males engaged in obstinate quar- 
rels. On the 4th of June, 1830, I observed two of these 
petulant Thrushes thus fiercely and jealously contending ; one 
of them used a plaintive and angry tone as he chased his 
antagonist up and down the tree. At length, however, a cousin 
Catbird, to which this species has some affinity, stepped in be- 
twi.xt the combatants, and they soon parted. One of these 
birds had a nest and mate in the gooseberry bush of a neigh- 
boring garden ; the second bird was thus a dissatisfied hermit, 
and spent many weeks in the Botanic Garden, where, though 
at times sad and solitary, yet he constantly amused us with his 
forlorn song, and seemed at last, as it were, acquainted with 
those who whistled for him, peeping out of the bushes with a 
sort of complaisant curiosity, and from his almost nocturnal 
habits became a great persecutor of the assassin Owl whenever 
he dared to make his appearance. 
The nest of Wilson’s Thrush (commenced about the close of 
the first week in May) is usually in a low and thorny bush in 
the darkest part of the forest, at no great distance from the 
ground (i to 3 feet), sometimes indeed on the earth, but 
raised by a bed of leaves, and greatly resembles that of the 
Catbird. This species seems, indeed, for security artfully to 
depend on the resemblance of itself and its leafy nest with the 
bosom of the forest on which it rests, and when approached it 
sits so close as nearly to admit of being taken up by the hand. 
The nest sometimes appears without any shelter but shade and 
association of colors with the place on which it rests. I have 
seen one placed on a mass of prostrated dead brambles, on a 
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