OLIVE-BACKED THRUSH 359 



home will meet your friendly advances with con- 

 fidence, answering your whistle with its own 

 sweet wavering- whee-u, till you feel that the 

 woods hold gentle friends to whom you will 

 gladly return. Hold a stiff beech-leaf at right 

 angles to your lips, and whistle softly a series of 

 descending whee-u^ lohee-u, ivhee-ivhee-u's, and you 

 will get a little of the reed-like quality and phras- 

 ing of the Veery's song. To me it has all the 

 restfulness of the sunny beech woods in summer, 

 for it is one of my best-loved home-birds. 



Olive-backed Thrush : Turdus ustulatus swainsonii. 

 (See Fig-. 220, 4, p. 361.) 



Upper parts uniformly olive ; throat buff y ; breast lightly spot- 

 ted. Length, about 7j inches. 



Geographic Distribution. — Breeds from Manitoba, northern 

 New England, and New Brunswick to Alaska and Labrador, 

 and southward along the Alleghanies to Pemisylvania ; win- 

 ters in the tropics. 



This northern Thrush may be heard singing on 

 its spring migration, and its song is said to be 

 forcibly delivered and ringing. The call note is 



