THE VARIED THRUSH. 



253 



Old nests are common; and gronps of lialf a. dozen in the space of a single 

 acre are evidently the consecntive product of a single pair of birds. 



There is a notable division of territory among these Thrushes. As a rule, 

 they maintain a distance of half a mile or so from any other nesting pair. 

 In two instances, however, Mr. Brown found nests within three hun- 

 dred yards of neigh- 

 bors. 



W h e n one ap- 

 proaches the center 

 of a reserve, the 

 brooding female 

 slips qnietl}- from 

 the nest and joins 

 herniate in denounc- 

 ing the intruder. 

 The birds ilit rest- 

 lessly from branch 

 to branch, or from 

 log to log, uttering 

 repeatedly a stern 

 tsook, which is al- 

 most their sole re- 

 course. If the nest 

 is discovered and ex- 

 amined, the birds 

 will disappear sil- 

 ently; and the 

 chances are that they 

 will never again be 

 seen in that lo- 

 cality. 



A nest found on 



May loth, with two eggs, was re\-isited on the 12th. It was saddled at 

 a point ten feet out on a leaning hemlock, which jutted from the river 

 bank over the roaring Nooksack. The prominence of the situation, in 

 this instance, proved the owner's undoing. An Owl had evidently snatched 

 her up on the previous night, the first of her maternal duty: for the nest 

 and the neighboring foliage were strewn with feathers. Yet so suitly had 

 the marauder executed his first coup that not an egg was broken. The 

 eggs were three in number, subovate, of a slightly greenish blue, beauti- 

 fully and heavily spotted — one might almost say blotched — with rufous, 

 the handsomest, Mr. Brown savs, ever seen. 



Taken at Glacier 



Photo by 



the Author. 



NEST AND EGGS OF \ARIE1> TURUSH. 



