A YEAR WITH THE BIRDS 
579 
XIV 
ORDER PASSERES: PERCHING BIRDS 
SUB-ORDER OSCINES: SINGING BIRDS 
Family Turdidae: Thrushes 
Wood Thrush: Turdus mustelinus. S. R. 
Plate II Fig. i 
Length: 7.50-8 inches. 
Male and Female: Above tawny, deepest on head, tail olivaceous. 
Sides of throat light buff, middle of throat, breast, and belly 
white; sprinkled on sides with heart-shaped or triangular dark- 
brown spots. Whitish eye ring, bill dark brown, feet flesh-colored. 
Song: A melody in which some notes have the effect of a stringed 
accompaniment. The syllables are uttered deliberately, about 
four seconds apart — “ Uoli — ■ a-e-o-li, uoli — uoli — uol — aeo- 
lee-lee ! ” 
Season: Early May to October. 
Nest: Of small twigs with a mud lining, sometimes saddled upon the 
boughs of evergreens not far from the trunk, or in small trees and 
bushes. 
Eggs: Four usually, similar in color to the Robin’s, but smaller. 
Next to the American Robin, the Wood Thrush is 
the most widely known of its tribe. This bird is called 
shy by many writers, but here in Connecticut it is both 
abundant and sociable, feeding about the lawn in com- 
pany with Robins, though it keeps more in shelter, skirt- 
ing the shrubbery, as it scratches. Two pairs nested last 
season in the spruces below the lawn. Their nests so 
closely resemble the best efforts of the Robin, and the eggs 
being of a like color, that I had mistaken them until I saw the 
Thrushes in possession. These nests were made wholly of 
sticks, and lined thinly with clay ; but two others that I found 
in the woods showed more varied materials. One was placed, 
some six feet from the ground, in a cedar bush close to a pool. 
The mud used to line the nest was full of Sphagnum, and of 
the water-soaked seed vessels of the sweet-pepper bush, which, 
mingled with dry beech leaves, made the nest very picturesque, 
while the mud was barely visible through the bedding of the 
