28 
TAWNY THRUSH. 
or clay. The eggs, which are deposited early in June, are from four to six, 
and resemble those of the Cat-bird in colour and shape, but are of smaller 
size. They raise only one brood in the season. The parents, ever extremely 
shy, show no desire to assist their young, or defend their nest from intruders, 
but remain during your visit at some distance, uttering a mournful and angry 
quake , somewhat resembling that of the Cat-bird on such occasions. The 
Cow Bunting not unfrequently deposits its egg in the nest of this Thrush, 
where it is hatched, and the young brought up with all imaginable care. In 
the neighbourhood of the city of Boston, some of these birds, according to 
my learned friend Nuttall, breed sometimes in the gardens, and he has 
known of a nest placed in a gooseberry bush. A full fledged young one 
that was caught and placed in a cage, retained the unsocial and silent timidity 
peculiar to the species. The males are obstinate in their quarrels, and fight 
with great fierceness in maintaining their right to the ground which they 
have appropriated to themselves. 
The song of this species, although resembling that of the Wood Thrush 
in a great degree, is less powerful, and is composed of continued trills' 
repeated with different variations, enunciated with great delicacy and 
mellowness, so as to be extremely pleasing to one listening to them in the 
dark solitudes wdiere the sylvan songster resides. It now and then tunes its 
throat in the calm of evening, and is heard sometimes until after the day 
has closed. 
It searches for food even at those hours, and feeds principally on 
coleopterous insects. In Labrador it also picks the tender blossoms of 
several dwarf plants, and feeds on berries. Its time is, for the most part, 
spent on the ground, where it moves with singular agility by leaps, stopping 
instantaneously and standing erect for a few moments, as if apprehending 
danger, but immediately renewing its course. 
The specimen presented in the plate was procured and drawn in the State 
of Maine. 
All the Thrushes examined, as well as the Shrikes, Warblers, Flycatchers, 
Swallows, in short all the land birds, have a pair of muscles proceeding from 
the sides of the thyroid cartilage, to be inserted into some part of the furcula. 
In all the Thrushes, the right lobe of the liver is larger than the left, under 
which it passes in the form of a thin expanded lobe ; and there is no gall- 
bladder. 
Tawny Thrush, Turclus mustelinus, Wils. Amcr. Orn., vol. v. p. 98. 
Turdus Wilsonii, Bonap. Syn., p. 76. 
Merula minor, (Swainson), Little Tawny Thrush , Swains, and Rich. F. Bor 
Amer., vol. ii. p. 179, Plate 36. The description and figure clearly refer to the 
present species. 
