id no needful thing, he was a
bird of leisure. The female did all the drudgery, and with what
an air of grace and ease she did it! So soft of wing, so trim of
form, so pretty of pose, and so gentle in every movement! It was
evidently no drudgery to her; the material was handy, and the
task one of love. All the behavior of the wood thrush affects one
like music; it is melody to the eye as the song is to the ear; it
is visible harmony. This bird cannot do an ungraceful thing. It
has the bearing of a bird of fine breeding. Its cousin the robin
is much more masculine and plebeian, harsher in voice, and ruder
in manners. The wood thrush is urban and suggests sylvan halls
and courtly companions. Softness, gentleness, composure,
characterize every movement. In only a few instances among our
birds does the male assist in nest-building. He is usually only a
gratuitous superintendent of the work. The male oriole visits the
half-finished structure of his mate, looks it over, tugs at the
strings now and then as if to try them, and, I suppose, has his
own opinion about the work, but I have never seen him actually
lend a hand and bring a string or a hair. If I belonged to our
sentimental school of nature writers I might say that he is too
proud, that it is against the traditions of his race and family;
but probably the truth is that he doesn't know how; that the
nest-building instinct is less active in him than in his mate;
that he is not impelled by the same necessity. It is easy to be
seen how important it is that the nesting instinct should be
strong in the female, whether it is or not in the male. The male
may be cut off and yet the nest be built and the family reared.
Among the rodents I fancy the nest is always built by the female.

Whatever the explanation, the mother bird is really the head of
the family; she is the most active in nest-building, and in most
cases in the care of the young; and among birds of prey, as among
insects, the female is the larger and the more powerful.

The wood thrush whose nest-building I have just described, laid
only one egg, and an abnormal-looking egg at that--very long and
both ends of the same size. But to my surprise out of the
abnormal-looking egg came in due time a normal-looking chick
which grew to birdhood without any mishaps. The late, cold season
and the consequent scarcity of food was undoubtedly the cause of
so small a family.

Another pair of wood thrushes built a nest on the l