PACIFIC VARIED THRUSH 85 



the Varied Thrush loves rain as a fish loves water; while as for the 

 eternal drizzle, it is his native element and vital air. Sunshine he bears 

 in stoical silence or else escapes to the depths of the forest glade." 



Similar haunts are to be found all along the heavdly forested, humid 

 coast belt throughout British Columbia and southern Alaska, as far 

 north as Yakutat Bay, where the dense conferous forests flourish 

 down to the shores, nourished by fogs and frequent rains, and where 

 the Pacific varied thrush feels most at home. 



Spring. — Although some varied thrushes may spend the winter as 

 far north as extreme southern Alaska, others are found as far south as 

 southern California, indicating a decided latitudinal migration. 

 Through the central portion of the summer range this migration is 

 not much in evidence, but Mr. Rathbun tells me that in vvestern 

 Washington there is a decided movement in spring toward the higher 

 altitudes and again in fall from the highlands to the lower levels. 

 Probably there is such an altitudinal migration in other parts of 

 the range of the species. 



George Willett writes to me that the Pacific varied thrush arrives 

 in southeastern Alaska during the latter half of April and leaves early 

 in October, but sometimes it is plentiful throughout the winter, as it 

 was at Craig in the winter of 1919-20; it was common at Ketchikan 

 after January 18, 1925. 



Nesting. — We found no nest with eggs while we were at Kirkland, 

 but on April 30, 1911, I found a new nest, apparently completed and 

 ready for the eggs; it was located about 10 feet from the ground in a 

 small fir on a knoll in the coniferous woods and near a small swampy 

 run; it was built on some small branches against the trunk; it was a 

 bulky nest, made mainly of soft mosses, reinforced with fir twigs and 

 lined with fine grasses. We found several old nests in the vicinity 

 that were similarly located. 



In the same general locality, on April 26, 1914, my assistant, 

 F. Seymour Hersey, found two nests similarly located; one contained 

 three young birds, apparently about five days old, and the other 

 held three well-incubated eggs; the female was on the nest in both 

 cases. Mr. Rathbun was with Mr. Hersey when these nests were 

 found and remarked that in the first of these nests the eggs must have 

 been laid early in April; once in a while he finds one of these early- 

 nesting pairs, but as a rule fresh eggs can be looked for about the 

 first of May. 



Mr. Rathbun mentions in his notes a number of nests found by him 

 in that same general region. Most of them were in small or medium- 

 sized firs in dense second-growth forests, sometimes alongside a path, 

 and sometimes in heavier fir forest or near the shore of the lake ; 

 they were all built against the trunk and supported by small branches; 



