Wilson's Thrush 
15 
the wood thrush, whose range is more southerly. 
During its spring and fall migrations only is it 
at all common about the elms and maples that 
men have planted. Take a good look at its 
tawny coat and lightly spotted, cream buff 
breast before it goes away to hide. Like 
Kipling's “cat that walked by himself," the 
veery prefers the “wild, wet woods, " and there 
its ringing, weird, whistling monotone, that is so 
melodious without being a melody, seems to 
come from you can’t guess where. The singer 
keeps hidden in the dense, dark undergrowth. 
It is as if two voices, an alto and a soprano, were 
singing at the same time: Whee-you, whee-you : 
— the familiar notes might come from a scythe 
being sharpened on a whetstone, were the sound 
less musical than it is. The bird is too wise to 
sing very near its well-hidden nest, which is 
placed either directly on the damp ground or 
not far above it, and usually near water. 
Throughout its life the veery seems to show a 
distrust of us that, try as we may, few have 
ever overcome. 
If you have thought that the thrush-like, cin- 
namon brown, speckle-breasted bird, with a long 
twitching tail like a catbird’s, and a song as fine 
as a catbird’s best, would be mentioned among 
the robin’s relations, you must guess again, for 
he is the brown thrasher, not a thrush at all. 
You will find him in the Group of Lively Singers. 
