712 MICHIGAN BIRD LIFE. 



above them all in wire-worms and thousandlegs, but eats scarcely any 

 scavenger beetles. Only 19 percent of its food was fruit, and all but 7 

 percent of this was wild. It would apparently well repay generous en- 

 couragement." 



We have no more beautiful songster or more lovable bird than this 

 in the state. Its song should commend it to the nature lover and its 

 food habits' to the agriculturist. It is not likely ever to become super- 

 abundant and there is reason to believe that it has been steadily decreasing 

 in numbers for the last two decades. 



The nest of the Wood Thrush is placed commonly in the triple fork of 

 a small sapling, on the horizontal branch of a low tree, or in a tangled 

 mass of bushes and vines, usually four to twelve feet from the ground, 

 more rarely at a height of fifteen or twenty. It is built of sticks, leaves, 

 bark and mud, and almost invariably Hned more or less completely with 

 fine roots. Most writers state that the nest is held together with mud, 

 but in many cases this certainly is not true, the mud being merely an 

 inner shell or lining upon which the incomplete lining of roots is laid. 

 Many nests contain very few roots and we have frequently found the eggs 

 laid directly upon the mud or upon a little mat of roots at the bottom of 

 nest, the surrounding mud walls being entirely naked. Mr. James B. 

 Purdy of Plymouth has called our attention to the fact that in his vicinity 

 the "mud" used is entirely of vegetable origin, being in reality a pulp 

 made of partly decomposed forest leaves which are molded into shape 

 much as paper pulp is worked. 



The eggs are almost invariably three or four, one about as often as 

 the other. They are of the same shade as the Robin's, greenish-blue, 

 unspotted, and not with certainty distinguishable from those of the Robin, 

 although they average somewhat smaller. Ridgwaj^ gives the average 

 as 1.04 by .72 inches. The nest is rarely hidden, and owing to its size 

 and lack of concealment is often robbed by Crows, Jays and boys, so that 

 the bird is sometimes compelled to build several nests, but there is no 

 reason to suppose that more than a single brood is reared in a season. 



TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION. 



Adult male: Tipper parts, including wings and tail, clear reddish-brown, reddest on 

 the head, most olive on the tail; under parts white, heavily spotted with black, the 

 throat and belly alone lacking spots. Sexes alike. 



Length 7.5U to 8.25 inches; wing 4 to 4.50; tail 3 to 3.30. 



320. Veery. Hylocichla fucescens fucescens (-S/cp/i.). (756) 



Synonyms: Tawny Thrush, Wilson's Thrush, Niglitingale. — Turdus fucescens, Steph., 

 1817, and most subsequent authors until 1880. — Hylocichia fucescens, Ridgw., 1880, 

 and most recent authors. — ^Turdus wilsonii, Bonap., 1824, and some others. 



All the thrushes are commonly recognizable from their general re- 

 semblance in form to the common Robin, while their colors are soft olives 

 and browns above and whitish below, the throat and breast more or less 

 spotted with brown or black. The largest of our thrushes, the Wood 

 Thrush, is decidedly smaller than the Robin, and the present species, the 

 Veery, is still smaller. The beginner will experience great difficulty in 

 separating the smaller thrushes, but the Veery may be characterized as 

 the palest of them all, both above and ))olow, with a distinct buffy tint 



