98 BULLETIN 196, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



district and seven from the interior, forty-two adult females from coast 

 and fourteen from interior localities, besides nine young representing 

 both districts) I have been unable, after very careful comparison, to 

 discover the slightest reason for recognizing two forms of this species." 



This northern and inland race, according to the 1931 Check-list, 

 "breeds in the Hudsonian and upper Canadian zones from the Yukon 

 Delta, Kowak Valley, and Mackenzie delta south to Prince William 

 Sound, Alaska, the southern part of the Mackenzie Valley, and south 

 in the mountains through eastern British Columbia to northwestern 

 Montana and northeastern Oregon. Winters mainly in the interior 

 of California south to Los Angeles County and irregularly to northern 

 Lower California." This is the form that has wandered as a straggler 

 as far east as Quebec and Massachusetts. 



Spring. — Dr. Grinnell (1900) writes: 



The Varied Thrush proved to be an abundant summer resident of the Kowak 

 Valley, and was observed in every tract of spruces visited. * * * Its arrival in the 

 neighborhood of our winter camp was noted on May 21st, when the twanging 

 notes of the males were heard several times in the morning and evening. The next 

 day they had arrived in full force and were to be seen and heard throughout the 

 spruce woods. The snow had by this date nearly all disappeared, though the 

 rivers and lakes were still covered with ice. The food of the Varied Thrushes at 

 this time consisted largely of the cranberries and blueberries which were left 

 from the previous summer's crop, and had been preserved beneath the winter 

 snows. For a few days the birds were quite lively for being of the thrush tribe, 

 which are usually of a quiet demeanor. When not feeding on the ground in one of 

 the fruitful openings in the forest, they would be seen in wild pursuit of one another, 

 either courting or quarrelling. The males were often seen in fierce combat; that 

 is, fierce for a thrush. Of course some female ensconced in a thick evergreen in 

 the vicinity was the cause of the duel. I never saw just how a quarrel would 

 commence. The swift pursuit would follow a tortuous route around and about, 

 twisting among the close-standing trees and across openings, so rapidly as to be 

 difficult to follow with the eye. The finale would be a brief scrimmage among the 

 thick foliage of a spruce, with a clatter of fluttering wings and a few sharp squeals 

 like a robin's. They would fall slowly through the branches to the ground, when 

 the contestants would separate, panting and puffing out different parts of their 

 plumage. The greatest apparent injury to either of the belligerents would be the 

 loss of two or three feathers, yet one of them would consider himself fairly beaten 

 and soon retire leaving the victor free to continue his courting. 



Nesting. — Dr. Grinnell (1900) found many nests of the northern 

 varied thrush and collected eleven sets of eggs; he writes: 



In the Kowak Valley I noticed the first signs of nest-building * * * on the 

 25th of May, just four days after their arrival, and by the 28th nearly every pair 

 were busy; for the summer is short, and there is no loitering, as is often the case 

 with our southern birds, after their arrival. The female does all the work of con- 

 structing the nest, the male accompanying her constantly in her many trips after 

 material, but, as far as my observations go, never proffering any assistance. 

 Many of the nests are built on those of the previous year as a foundation, and I 



