86 BULLETIN 19 6, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



none was over 14 or 15 feet above the ground. An exceptional nest, 

 containing two heavily incubated eggs, was in a small cedar in low 

 ground along the shore of Lake Washington. Two nests are described 

 in detail. One "was made outwardly of dead twigs, a few of which 

 were 5 inches long; next were many dead leaves of the alder and 

 maple interwoven with fresh green moss, strips of rotten wood and 

 fibrous dead grasses, within which was a thin layer of decayed vege- 

 table matter smoothly molded. Soft dead leaves and fine dry grasses 

 represented the lining." Another was made "outwardly of dead 

 leaves, dead twigs, bits of rotten wood, a very large amount of green 

 mosses stripped from logs and tree trunks, strips of dry inner bark, 

 and coarse dry grasses, interwoven with dry twigs from hemlocks 

 and firs, many of which were covered with lichens. The lining of the 

 nest was wholly of soft dry grasses to a depth of one and one-half 

 inches." 



Alaska nests, described by Mr. Willett in his notes, are similar; he 

 says that they are usually placed against the trunk of a young spruce, 

 10 to 25 feet up, but are sometimes on horizontal limbs of larger 

 trees. One especially large and fine nest measures 225 by 150 milli- 

 meters externally, with an inner cavity measuring 110 by 55 milli- 

 meters. 



Maj. Allan Brooks (1905) published data on five nests in southern 

 British Columbia, as follows: "The birds were found nesting in heavy 

 coniferous forest of very tall timber, with very little undergrowth for 

 the coast district, where dense brush is the rule. The nesting site was 

 usually a small tree heavily draped with the rank growth of green 

 moss which grows in such profusion in these dark woods." One nest 

 was in a small hemlock 9 feet from the ground, one in a moss-covered 

 spruce, one in a leaning cedar, one in a vine maple (Acer circinatum) , 

 and the other in the pendant branch of a large cedar, 12 feet from the 

 ground. One nest contained four eggs and all the others three. The 

 nests were similar in construction to those described above. "The 

 average dimensions are about six and a half inches for outside di- 

 ameter, and three and a half across the cavity. * * * In no 

 instance were two pairs of birds found breeding near each other; 

 the nests were about half a mile apart. The proximity of the nest is 

 usually betrayed by the actions of the birds, which flutter from tree to 

 tree uttering a peculiar chatter not heard at other times." 



Mr. Dawson (1923) says: "Old nests are common; and groups of 

 half a dozen in the space of a single acre are evidently the consecutive 

 product of a single pair of birds. There is a notable division of terri- 

 tory 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, one observer found nests within three hundred yards of 



