WOOD THRUSH. 
107 
robin, and by ornithologists, in general, the little thrush, 
though we have several thrushes larger, and a number 
smaller. Turdus minor appears, therefore, not alto- 
gether a suitable appellation : the present name has 
been adopted from Mr William Bartram, who seems to 
have been the first and almost only naturalist who has 
taken notice of the merits of this bird. 
This sweet and solitary songster inhabits the whole 
of North America, from Hudson’s Bay to the peninsula 
of Florida. He arrives in Pennsylvania about the 20th 
of April, or soon after, and returns to the south about 
the beginning of October. The lateness or earliness of 
the season seems to make less difference in the times 
of arrival of our birds of passage than is generally 
imagined. Early in April the woods are often in con- 
siderable forwardness, and scarce a summer bird to be 
seen. On the other hand, vegetation is sometimes no 
farther advanced on the 20th of April, at which time 
( e.g . this present year, 1807) numbers of wood thrushes 
are seen flitting through the moist woody hollows ; and 
a variety of the motacilla genus chattering from almost 
every bush, with scarce an expanded leaf to conceal 
them. But at whatever time the wood thrush may 
arrive, he soon announces his presence in the woods. 
With the dawn of the succeeding morning, mounting 
to the top of some tall tree that rises from a low thick 
shaded part of the woods, he pipes his few, but clear 
and musical notes, in a kind of ecstasy ; the prelude, or 
symphony to which, strongly resembles the double- 
tonguing of a German flute, and sometimes the tinkling 
of a small bell ; the whole song consists of five or six 
parts, the last note of each of which is in such a tone as 
to leave the conclusion evidently suspended ; the finale 
is finely managed, and with such charming effect as to 
soothe and tranquillize the mind, and to seem sweeter 
and mellower at each successive repetition. Rival 
songsters, of the same species, challenge each other 
from different parts of the wood, seeming to vie for 
softer tones and more exquisite responses. During the 
burning heat of the day, they are comparatively mute ; 
