Veery
Well-shaded lawns are sometimes graced by his presence, and at all times he is more familiar and easier to observe than his retiring relative. His large size, bright cinnamon upper parts, and especially his conspicuously spotted breast and sides, are his most striking field characters.
When excited, his usual call-note, pit-pit, is rapidly repeated until THRUSHES, BLUEBIRDS, ETC. it resembles the sound produced by striking large pebbles together, quite unlike the whistled whèeu of the Veery. The Wood Thrush is a lovable bird, with a voice suited to his gentle disposition, but when his young are in real or fancied danger his sharp alarm-note gives painful evidence of his fear and anxiety.
The songs of the Wood and Hermit Thrushes are of the same character, but, while the Hermit is the more gifted performer, the Wood Thrush does not suffer by the comparison. His calm, restful song rings through the woods like a hymn of praise rising pure and clear from a thankful heart. It is a message of hope and good cheer in the morning, a benediction at the close of day:
The flutelike opening notes are an invitation to his haunts; a call from Nature to yield ourselves to the ennobling influences of the forest. Come to me. 756. Turdus fuscescens Steph. WILSON'S THRUSH; VEERY. Ad. -Upper parts, wings, and tail nearly uniform cinnamon-brown, not so bright as in the Wood Thrush; center of the throat white; sides of the throat and breast with a delicate tinge of cream-buff, spotted with small wedge-shaped spots of nearly the same color as the back; belly white; sides white, with only a faint tinge of grayish. L., 7.52; W., 3.84; T., 2-87; B., 53.