GRAY-CHEEKED THRUSH 191 



indestructible by the elements, for the woods were full of old nests 

 some of which must have survived many seasons." 



Dr. Brewer (Baird, Brewer, and Ridgway, 1874) gives a very good 

 description of the nests, as follows: "The nests measure about 4 

 inches in diameter and 2% in height. The cavity is 2 inches deep, and 

 its diameter 2K inches. They are usually compact for the nest of a 

 thrush, and are composed chiefly of an elaborate interweaving of fine 

 sedges, leaves, stems of the more delicate Equisetaceae, dry grasses, 

 strips of fine bark, and decayed leaves, the whole intermingled with 

 the panicled inflorescence of grasses. There is little or no lining 

 other than these materials * * *. The Hypnum mosses, so 

 marked a feature in the nests of T. swainsoni, as also in those of 

 T. ustulatus, are wholly wanting in those of T. aliciae." 



Dr. Nelson (1887), however, found a nest at St. Michael that was 

 "composed mainly of these mosses mixed with a small amount of 

 coarse grass." 



There is a set of eggs in my collection, taken by Rev. W. W. Perrett 

 at Makkovik, Labrador, on June 27, 1899, that came from a nest made 

 of small twigs, moss, and dry grass, lined with fine grass and a few 

 dry leaves and rootlets; the nest was placed about 3 feet from the 

 ground in a small spruce. Another nest in his collection was similarly 

 constructed but placed on the ground under a small juniper. Another 

 set in my collection was taken by J. R. Whitaker at Grand Lake, 

 Newfoundland, on June 26, 1919; the nest was 18 inches from the 

 ground on a prostrate tree. Dr. George J. Wallace (1939) also says 

 that this thrush builds "a mossy nest." Herbert Brandt (1943) 

 found the gray-cheeked thrush breeding in the Askinuk Mountains, 

 near Hooper Bay, Alaska, "in the alder growth below an altitude of 

 500 feet," and says that "the outside of some nests is so profusely 

 decorated with moss and lichens as to cover completely the grassy 

 wall." The nests were in upright crotches, entirely without con- 

 cealment, from 2 to 4.50 feet above the ground. 



Eggs. — The gray-cheeked thrush lays ordinarily four eggs, some- 

 times only three and frequently five; Dr. Wallace (1939) says "from 

 four to six." 



The eggs are usually ovate in shape, but some are more elongated 

 and some more rounded. They have very little or no gloss. The 

 ground color is a light, greenish blue, from "Nile blue" to "pale Nile 

 blue" or even paler. They are usually more sparingly and more faintly 

 marked than the eggs of the olive-backed thrush, but with similar 

 shades of brown, "hazel" to "cinnamon" or paler. Some eggs have 

 fairly large blotches about the larger end, and some are uniformly and 

 evenly sprinkled with minute dots. In some eggs the markings are 

 so small and faint that the egg appears almost immaculate. The 



