40 DESCRIPTION AND DISTRIBUTION OF THE VEERY 



purer brown, the former with white or butty spaces at the concealed bases 

 of the inner webs, as usual in this subgenus. No orbital light ring around the 

 eye ; auriculars only obsoletely streaky. Below, white ; the sides shaded 

 with hoary-gray or light grayish-olive; the jugulum buff-colored, contrast- 

 ing strongly with the white of the breast, and marked with a few small 

 brown arrow-heads, the chin and middle line of throat, however, nearly 

 white and immaculate. A few obsolete grayish-olive spots in the white of 

 the breast; but otherwise the markings confined to the buff area. Bill dark 

 above, mostly all pale below, like the feet. (^,7-7^; extent, about 12 ; wing, 

 4-4J ; tail, 3-3J; bill, f ; tarsus, Ij. $ averaging smaller, 



I have not observed a very early spotted and streaked stage of plumage, 

 which, however, is presumed to occur, as in other species of this group. The 

 sexes are alike in color, and the seasonal changes are slight. The differ- 

 ences consist mainly in the stronger reddishness of the upper parts, or its 

 tinging with an appreciable shade of olivaceous. But the upper parts are 

 never of the decidedly olive shade seen in swainsoni and in the fore parts of 

 pallasi. The color of the upper parts, however, viewing its occasional shad- 

 ing toward olive, is less strongly distinctive of the species than the peculiar 

 coloration of the under parts is. The pinkish-buff of the jugulum, restricted 

 and sharply contrasting with the white of the breast, and its few small 

 brown (not black or even blackish) spots, which do not extend into the 

 white of the breast, are perfectly characteristic, as are the absence of a 

 decided yellowish orbital ring and of distinct streaks on the auriculars. 



A curious malformation is exhibited in a specimen in Mr. Ridgway's col- 

 lection, in which the upper mandible is overgrown, and as much hooked at 

 the end as that of a Shrike. 



The average dimensions of a large series of specimens of both sexes are : — 

 Length, 7.35 ; extent, 11.75; wing, 3.90; tail, 2.85 ; tarsus, 1.12. 



WILSON'S Thrush is aiiotlier species which, a few years 

 ago, could not have been properly brought into the 

 j)resent connection, owing to our lack of knowledge of its ex- 

 treme western limits. The first authentic record of its occur- 

 rence in the Rocky Mountains is, I think, that giveu in 1858 

 by Professor Baird, who received a specimen from Fort Bridger, 

 Utah. Latterly, Mr. J. A. Allen found the bird in Colorado Terri- 

 tory, where Mr. Trippe also observed it, in July, at an eleva- 

 tion of over 8,000 feet, and where it was doubtless breeding. 

 Both Mr. Ridgway and Mr. ETenshaw discovered it to be an 

 abundant species in Utah and Colorado, and the former re- 

 garded it as one of the most characteristic birds of the valleys 

 of the Provo, Bear, and Weber liivers in Utah. Two nests 

 were found by the latter near Fort Garland, Colorado, at nearly 

 the altitude just mentioned ; one of them was curiously built 

 above an old nest of the previous season, which had been 

 remodeled for the purpose. As Mr. Henshaw remarks, though 

 the Veery is thus common on the northern confines of the Colo- 



