628 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



woodland is silent save for the occasional ecstatic out- 

 burst of an ovenbird, hurling itself above the trees, the 

 clear tranquil notes of the hermit will move even the 

 most stolid. Bejjinning low, like the distant dripping 

 of some cool s]iring, the singer runs lightly np the scale 



the wood thrush, although the latter winters from south- 

 ern Mexico to Central America. 



The olive-backed and gray-cheeked thrushes are less 

 well known than the others. Wintering in South Amer- 

 ica and nesting in the coniferous forests of the North, 

 the}- are seen in the United States only as transients in 

 the spring and fall, except in the mountains of New 

 York and New England, where they nest at altitudes 

 over 2, .500 feet. They are both uniformly darker than 

 the other thrushes and can be distinguished from each 

 other, in good light, by the fact that in the olive-backed, 

 the eye ring and cheeks are washed with bufTfy. The 

 sub-species of the gray-cheeked thrush which nests 

 south of the St. Lawrence, is somewhat smaller lh;ui the 

 northern bird and has been named the Bicknell's tlirush. 



'i'he I'ownscnd's solitaire of the Rocky Mountain re- 

 gion is similar tn liie hermit thrush in its habits, living 

 alone in the coniferous forests whose silences are broken 

 only l)y the beautifully clear notes of this bird. The 

 solitaire is a dark gray bird, about the size of a bluebird, 

 with a white eye ring, white wing bars and white lips to 

 the outer tail feathers. It builds a rough nest under a 

 shelving bank and. unlike the other thrushes, lays gray- 

 ish-white eggs spotted with brown. 



The varied thrush is a strikingly marked ijird of the 

 Northwest, ranging in summer from Alaska to the 

 mountains of northern California and wintering from 

 Washington to I^ower California. It is a bird about the 

 size of a robin, rusty brown beneath, the throat crossed 



A BLUEBIRD IN THE ORCHARD 



Bluchtrfls and apple blossoms arc always associated. It is well that they 

 should be — well for us, well for the birds, and well for the orchard. 



until it touches the highest chords ; a still higher note, a 

 trill, and then silence. Soon the low, licpiid notes are 

 heard once more, as the bird moves nearer, and the song 

 is re])eated again and again, not hurriedly, but with all 

 the leisure and solemnity that a finished production re- 

 quires. .\11 nature is hushed and seems to listen to the 

 voice that e.xjjresses so well the ])urity, the serenilv. the 

 mystery of the twilight in the forest. 



The wood thrush and the veery are but slightly in- 

 ferior' to the hermit in their songs and in most places 

 are nuuh better known, for they often take uj) their 

 abodes in city parks or about shaded lawns. The veery 

 requires iiKjist woodlands with undergrowth in which to 

 place its nest, but the wood thrush is often content in an 

 orchard or along shaded streets like the robin. The 

 song of the wood thrush is somewhat like that of the 

 hermit, but the phrases are shorter and the notes less 

 cle.ir. The veery's song, on the other hand, is quite 

 different. Rich and clear like the songs of the other 

 thrushes, it consists of a single continuous warble like 

 the syllables, wee-o, wee-o, wee-o, given on a descending 

 .spiral. The veery has fewer and less conspicuous spots 

 on its breast than the hermit, but the wood thrush has 

 its clear white breast covered w^ith large dark spots. 

 Moreover, it can be distinguished also by the fact that by a blackish necklace, and dark hhiish-slatc alxne. It 

 its head is much brighter than its back. The veery win- is ordinarily a rather shy bird. l)ut on its winter journeNS 

 ters in r.orthern South .\mcrica, but reaches the northern it frecpiently comes into gardens where it can tind the 

 United States the last of .Xpril, somewhat earlier than berries of the California holly or of the manzanita. 



A.N l.NSECT ELIMINATOR 

 \ box full of bluebirds will do a great deal toward ridding the garden of 

 pests The box should measure 5x5x8 inches, with a 2-inch hole four 

 inches from the bottom on one side. 



