The hermit thrush is a medium-sized North American thrush. It is not very closely related to the other North American migrant species of Catharus, but rather to the Mexican russet nightingale-thrush. The specific name guttatus is Latin for "spotted", though historically this species has been given 17 additional species or subspecies names by various authors, now all treated as synonyms.
Hermit thrush
Adult in New York City, showing reddish tail
Ocala National Forest, Florida 2008
East Hartford, Connecticut
When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd
"When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd" is a long poem written by American poet Walt Whitman (1819–1892) as an elegy to President Abraham Lincoln. It was written in the summer of 1865 during a period of profound national mourning in the aftermath of the president's assassination on 14 April of that year.
The poem's first page in the 1865 edition of Sequel to Drum-Taps
Common lilac (Syringa vulgaris)
Shown in the presidential booth of Ford's Theatre, from left to right, are assassin John Wilkes Booth, Abraham Lincoln, Mary Todd Lincoln, Clara Harris, and Henry Rathbone
Lilac flowers and heart-shaped leaves