TURDID.E — TilK THRUSHES. H 



When incubation lias eomnvnced, tlie female is reluctant to leave her nest. 

 If driven off she utters no complaint, but remains close at hand and returns 

 at the first oppc.irtunity. 



They construct their nest early in ^lay, and the young are hatched in the 

 latter part of that month, or the first of June. They raise two broods in the 

 season. The nest, even more loosely put together than that of the Ground 

 Swamp Eobin {T. ^j«//a.sj), is often with difficulty kept complete. It is 

 about 3 inches in height, 4i in diameter, with a cavity li inches deep and 

 o in width, and composed of dry hark, dead leaves, .stems, and woody fibres, 

 intermingled with grasses, caricas, sedges, etc., and lined with soft skeleton 

 leaves. A nest from Wisconsin was composed entirely of a coarse species of 

 Sparganeum ; the dead stalks and leaves of which were interwoven with a 

 ^■ery striking effect. 



The eggs, usually four, sometimes fi\'e in numbei', are of a uniform green 

 cohir, with a slight tinge of blue, and average .9-i by .66 of an inch in 

 diameter. 



Turdus aliciae, ?..viini. 



GEAY-CHEEKED THRUSH; ALICE'S THRUSH. 



Turdus alicia; Baird, Birds N. Am. 1858, 217, plate 81, f. 2. — Ib. Review Am. Birds, I, 

 1864, 21. — CouKs, Pr. Ac. N. Sc. Aug. 1861, 217 (Labrador). — I b. Catal. Birds of 

 Washington. — Guxdlach, Repertorio, 1865, 229 (Cuba). — Lawr. Ann. N. Y. Lye. 

 IX, 91 (Costa Rica). — Dall and Bannister, Birds Alaska. — RlDOW.w, Report. 



Sp. Ch.vr. Above nearly pure dark olive-green ; side.s of the head ash-gray ; the chin, 

 throat, and under parte white ; purest behind. Sides of throat and across the breast with 

 arrow-shaped spots of dark plumbeous-brown. Sides of body and a.xillaries dull grayish- 

 olivaceous. Tibiie plumbeous ; legs brown. Length, nearly 8 inches ; wing, 4.20 ; tail, 

 3.20 ; tarsus. 1.15. 



Hab. Eastern North America to shores of Arctic Ocean, and along northern coast from 

 Labrador to Kodiak, breeding in immense numbers between the mouths of Mackenzie and 

 Coppermine. West to Fort Yukon and Missouri River States. Winters south to Costa 

 Rica. Chiriqui, Salvin ; Cuba, Gcndlach. 



As originally described, this species differs from swainsoni in larger 

 size, longer bill, feet, and wings especially, straighter and narrower bill. 

 The back is of a greener olive. The breast and sides of the head are 

 entirely destitute of the buft' tinge, or at best this is very faintly indicated 

 on the upper part of the breast. The most characteristic features are seen 

 on the side of the head. Here there is no indication whatever of the light 

 line from nostril to eye, and scarcely any of a light ring round the eye, — 

 the whole region being grayish-olive, relieve<l slightly hj' whitish shaft- 

 streaks ou the ear coverts. The sides of body, axillars, and tibiie are 

 olivaceous-gray, without any of the fuh'ous tinge seen in mvuinsoni. 

 The bill measures .4U from tip to nostril, sometimes more ; tarsi, 1.21 ; 



