THE WILLOW THRUSH. 229 



No. 92. 



WILLOW THRUSH. 



A. O. L'. No. 556a. Hylocichia fuscescens salicicola Ridgvvay. 



Synonym. — Western Wii.sox Thrush. 



Description. — Adult: Above, dull tawny-brown, uniforni; wing-quills sliad- 

 ing to brownish fuscous on inner webs ; below white, the throat, except in the 

 upper middle, and the breast, tinged with cream-buff, and spotted narrowly and 

 sparingly with wedge-shaped marks of the color of the back ; sides and flanks 

 more or less tinged with brownish gray ; sides of head buffy-tinged, with mixed 

 brown, save on whitish lores ; bill dark above, light below ; feet light brown. 

 Adult male, length 7-25-7.75 (184.2-196.1)) ; wing 3.93 ( 100) ; tail 2.95 (75) : bill 

 .55 (14): tarsus 1. 18 (30). 



Recognition Marks. — Sparrow to Chewink size : didl cinnamon brown 

 above: breast buffy, lightly spotted. 



Nesting. — Nest: of leaves, bark-strips, weed-stems and trash, lined with 

 rootlets; placed at height of two or three feet in thickets or, rarely, on ground. 

 Eggs: 3-5, plain greenish blue, not unlike those of the Robin. Av. size, .90 x .65 

 (22.8x16.5). Season: first or second week in June; one brood. 



General Range. — ^^''estern interior districts of LTnited States and Canada ; 

 breeding from North Dakota and Manitoba west to interior of British Columbia 

 and southward to Nevada, LJtah and Colorado ; southward during migrations thru 

 Arizona, etc., to Brazil, also thru the Mississippi \'alley and, casually, eastward. 



Range in Washington. — Summer resident in the hilly districts of north- 

 western Washington, — Blue j\Iountains( ?). 



Authorities. — Howe, Auk, XML Jan. 1900, p. 19 (Spokane). T(?). J. 



Specimens. — Prov. 



THE Willow Thrush shares with its even more retiring cousin, the 

 Olive-back, the forests of the northwestern portion of the State. Here it may 

 be fotmd in the seclusion of spring draws and alder bottoms, or in the miscel- 

 laneous co\-er which lines the banks of the larger streams. It is confined 

 almost entireh' to the N'icinitv of water, and spends much of its time on the 

 damp ground poking aniong the fallen leaves and searching the nooks and 

 corners of tree-roots. Since the bird is but a flitting shade, one cannot easily 

 determine its color-pattern, and must learn rather the range and quality of its 

 notes. The bird is. rather than lias, a voice, an elusive voice, a weird and won- 

 derful ^•oice. And only after one has heard the song, with its reverberant, 

 sweet thunder, and its exquisitely diminishing cadences, as it wells up at even- 

 tide from some low thicket, may one be said to know the Willow Thrush. 



For the most part the bird betrays interest in your movements by a sub- 

 dued yeivi. a note of complaint and admonition, varii.nisly likened to a grunt, 

 a bleat, or a nasal interjection. Not infrequently this becomes a clearly 



