522 Birds of Colorado 



Distribution. — Breeding in the Rocky Moian tains from eastern British 

 Columbia to Lower California and New Mexico, south in winter through 

 Mexico to Guatemala ; a few wintering in western Texas. 



The Rocky-Mountain Thrush is certainly the most abvmdant member 

 of its genus ia Colorado. It is a summer resident, breeding throughout 

 the mountains, from about 8,000 feet to 11,000 feet and nearly up to 

 timber line ; it occurs on migration out on the plains, as far as Limon 

 (Aiken coll.. May 21st), and Fort Lyon (May 6th to 9th, Thorne), and 

 has been met with breeding £i3 low as 6,500 feet on Groove Creek, 

 Mesa CO., by Rockwell. 



Other breeding records are : Boulder co., 5,800 to 10,000 feet (Gale), 

 above Idaho Springs, 11,000 feet to 13,000 feet (Trippe), Breckenridge, 

 Carter (Cooke), slopes of Grays and Pikes Peaks (Keyser), Hancock, 

 11,000 feet (Stone), slopes of Moimt Baldy, near Fort Garland (Hen- 

 shaw), San Juan co. (Drew), La Plata co., at 10,000 feet (Gihnan). 



On migration it arrives early in May — Pueblo, May 6th (Lowe), 

 and departs in October — Pueblo, October 5th, 6th and 13th (Beckheim). 



Habits. — ^The favourite liaunts of the Rocky -Moimtain 

 Thrush are deep and sheltered canons and dark spruce 

 forest, where the sun hardly shines ; here it is to be found 

 sometimes alone, sometimes several together, enlivening 

 the gloomy solitudes with its exquisite notes both during 

 the middle of the day and also evening and morning. 

 It is very shy and retiring, and even when located by 

 its note is most difficult to catch a glimpse of. 



Gale's notes contain the record of a large number of 

 nests found by him at various elevations, from about 

 6,000 to 11,000 feet ; they were placed almost exclusively 

 on spruce trees from about three to ten feet from the 

 ground, generally in a spot near a mountain stream or 

 close to a spring. 



Nests were constructed of various materials, such as 

 rotten wood, mosses, grasses and plant stems, and lined 

 with rootlets, horsehair or fine grasses. All these 

 materials have been found in the nests, though by no 

 means in every nest. The construction varied consider- 

 ably, but no clay or mud is used. The nests were very 



