nounced it a flycatcher, which was a good way wide of the mark.
Jefferson must have seen only the female, after all his tramp, from his
description of the color; but he was doubtless following his own great
thoughts more than the bird, else he would have had an earlier view. The
bird was not a new one, but was well known then as the ground-robin. The
President put Wilson on the wrong scent by his erroneous description,
and it was a long time before the latter got at the truth of the case.
But Jefferson's letter is a good sample of those which specialists
often receive from intelligent persons who have seen or heard something
in their line very curious or entirely new, and who set the man of
science agog by a description of the supposed novelty,--a description
that generally fits the facts of the case about as well as your coat
fits the chair-back. Strange and curious things in the air, and in the
water, and in the earth beneath, are seen every day except by those who
are looking for them, namely, the naturalists. When Wilson or Audubon
gets his eye on the unknown bird, the illusion vanishes, and your
phenomenon turns out to be one of the commonplaces of the fields or
woods.

THE BROWN THRASHER

Our long-tailed thrush, or thrasher, delights in a high branch of some
solitary tree, whence it will pour out its rich and intricate warble for
an hour together. This bird is the great American chipper. There is no
other bird that I know of that can chip with such emphasis and military
decision as this yellow-eyed songster. It is like the click of a giant
gunlock. Why is the thrasher so stealthy? It always seems to be going
about on tip-toe. I never knew it to steal anything, and yet it skulks
and hides like a fugitive from justice. One never sees it flying aloft
in the air and traversing the world openly, like most birds, but it
darts along fences and through bushes as if pursued by a guilty
conscience. Only when the musical fit is upon it does it come up into
full view, and invite the world to hear and behold.

Years pass without my finding a brown thrasher's nest; it is not a nest
you are likely to stumble upon in your walk; it is hidden as a miser
hides his gold, and watched as jealously. The male pours out his rich
and triumphant song from the tallest tree he can find, and fairly
challenges you to come and look for his treasures in his vicinity. But
you will not find them if you go. The nest is somewhere on the out