FERRUGINOUS THRUSH, OR THRASHER. 329 
comparative advancement of the season. They appear 
always to come in pairs, so that their mutual attachment 
is probably more durable than the season of incubation. 
Stationed on the top of some tall orchard or forest tree, 
the male, gay and animated, salutes the morn of his 
arrival with his loud and charming song. His voice, 
somewhat resembling that of the Thrush of Europe, but 
far more varied and powerful, rises preeminent amidst all 
the vocal choir of the forest. His music has the full 
charm of innate originality ; he takes no delight in mim- 
icry, and has therefore no title to the name of Mocking- 
bird.* On his first appearance, he faulters in his song, 
like the Nightingale, but when his mate commences her 
cares and labors, his notes attain all their vigor and 
variety. The young birds, even of the first season, 
in a state of solitary domestication, without the aid of 
the parent’s voice, already whisper forth in harmonious 
reverie the pathetic and sweet warble, instinctive to the 
species. In the month of May, while the blooming or- 
chards perfume and decorate the landscape, the enchant- 
ing voice of the Thrasher, in his affectionate lay, seems 
to give grateful utterance for the bounty and teeming 
profusion of nature, and falls in pleasing unison with the 
harmony and beauty of the season. 
From the beginning to the middle of May the Thrash- 
er is engaged in building his nest, selecting for this pur- 
pose usually a low, thick bush, in some retired thicket or 
swamp, a few feet from the earth, and sometimes even on 
the ground, in some sheltered tussuck, or near the root 
of a bush. It has a general resemblance to the nest of 
the Cat-bird ; outwardly being made of small interlacing 
twigs, then layers of dry oak or beech leaves, either whole 
* He is called in the Southern States, the French Mocking-bird. 
28 * 
