I 



WOOD THRUSH 79 



is followed by a low sharp phew or a higher phee-oo, which 

 in turn may be subdued or softened or varied in tone. 



The Veery's huffij, comparatively unspotted breast, and 

 its taivny head, hack, and tail, distinguish it from the 

 other thrushes. The Brown Thrush, so called, or Brown 

 Thrasher, has white under parts heavily spotted with black. 



Wood Thrush. Hylocichla mustelma 



8.29 



Ad. — Head and upper back, reddish-brown; lower back and 

 tail brown ; breast and sides of belly white, heavily spotted with 

 large black spots. 



Nest, generally in a sapling about eight feet up. Eggs, green- 

 ish-blue. 



The Wood Thrush is a common summer resident of 

 southern New England and the Hudson Valley, but north 

 of Massachusetts it is only found up the valleys of the 

 Connecticut, the Merrimac, and their chief tributaries, and 

 along Lake Champlain. It is true that it has been found at 

 Willoughby Gap, and at Lake Memphremagog in Vermont, 

 near Mt. Moosilauke, at Jefferson, and at Pranconia in New 

 Hampshire, but in most of the upland country of New 

 England — in Worcester and Berkshire counties in Massa- 

 chusetts, and farther north, wherever spruce and fir are 

 found, in all of Maine but the extreme southwest, in the Adi- 

 rondacks, and in nearly all of New Hampshire and Vermont — 

 the Hermit, Veery, and Olive-backed are the only common 

 thrushes. The Wood Thrush comes in early May, and is only 

 occasionally seen after the first of September. In southern 

 Connecticut and in the neighborhood of New York city it 

 is a familiar dooryard bird, but in the rest of its northern 

 range it is a bird of rich woods, especially where there is 

 young growth near water. 



The Wood Thrush is in song from the morning of its 

 arrival till July, often all through the day, especially in cool 



