116 
TURDUS RUFUS. 
resides near Tarrytown, on the banks of the Hudson, 
informed me, that she raised and kept one of these birds 
for seventeen years; which sung as well, and looked 
as sprightly, at that age as ever; but was at last unfor- 
tunately destroyed by a cat. The morning is their 
favourite time for song. In passing through the streets 
of our iarge cities, on Sunday, in the months of April 
and May, a little after daybreak, the general silence 
which usually prevails without at that hour, will enable 
you to distinguish every house where one of these 
songsters resides, as he makes it then ring with his 
music. 
Not only the plumage of the robin, as of many other 
birds, is subject to slight periodical changes of colour, 
but even the legs, feet, and bill; the latter, in the male, 
being frequently found tipt and ridged for half its length 
with black. In the depth of winter their plumage is 
generally best; at which time the full grown bird 
appears in his most perfect dress. 
93. T USD US S'JFUS , LINNAEUS AND WILSON. 
FERRUGINOUS THRUSH. 
WILSON, PLATE XIV. FIG. I. 
This is the brown thrush, or thrasher of the middle 
and eastern States; arid the French mocking bird* of 
Maryland, Virginia, and the Carolinas. It is the largest 
of all our thrushes, and is a well known and very 
distinguished songster. About the middle, or 20th of 
April, or generally about the time the cherry trees 
begin to blossom, he arrives in Pennsylvania ; and from 
the tops of our hedgerows, sassafras, apple or cherry 
trees, he salutes the opening morning with his charming 
song, which is loud, emphatical, and full of variety. At 
that serene hour, you may plainly distinguish his voice 
full half a mile off. These notes are not imitative, as 
* See article Mocking Bird, for the supposed origin of this name. 
