VEERY 217 



abundant and active, their numbers apparently suffering little if 

 any diminution due to migration. G. M. Allen (1902) reported them 

 still on their breeding ground in Carter Notch, N. H., on September 

 15, 1900. Sweet (1906) heard them calling on Mount Abraham, 

 Maine, on September 20. Migration records from southern New- 

 England likewise indicate that the thrushes remain in their mountain 

 home until late in September. The earliest Massachusetts migration 

 record is September 18, and the vast majority of the records fall on 

 the final days of the month or early in October. From southern New 

 England the thrushes proceed leisurely along the Atlantic coast, 

 seldom occurring far inland, frequenting tangled beaches, fence rows, 

 and woodlands and supplementing their insectivorous diet with 

 generous quantities of wild fruit. Before the close of October, how- 

 ever, they leave the North American coast, probably anywhere be- 

 tween the Carolinas and Florida, and seek their only known winter 

 home in the West Indies, where, high up in the mountains, they pass 

 their days — no one knows how. 



HYLOCICHLA FUSCESCENS FUSCESCENS (Stephens) 



VEERY 



HABITS 



Contributed by Winsor Marrett Ttler 



The veery makes its summer home in the half light of shady woods 

 where a substratum of undergrowth deepens the shadows near the 

 ground. Years ago in Lexington, Mass., there was a wooded swamp 

 of perhaps 20 acres in which the veeries found ideal surroundings for 

 nesting; many pairs came every spring and spent the summer there. 

 Tall white pines, elms, and red maples grew thick in the moist soil, 

 almost crowded together, and below them were smaller trees, great 

 beds of cinnamon fern, patches of jewel weed, Canada lilies, and tangles 

 of raspberry vines, and lower still, here and there, clumps of Clin- 

 tonia — a rare plant thereabout. The wood was back from the road, 

 always silent and undisturbed; it had stood unchanged for half a cen- 

 tury, and the veeries had made this quiet spot their home for years; 

 all through the summer the air trembled with their music. But now, 

 many of the trees have been felled, letting in the sunlight, and few 

 veeries nest there today. 



Spring. — In the spring the veery takes a long journey from its 

 winter quarters in South America — Colombia, Brazil, and British 

 Guiana — by way of Central America to its breeding grounds in the 

 United States and southeastern Canada. The species reaches New 

 England early in May, a season when many of our summer resident 

 birds have just arrived from the south. The Baltimore orioles are 



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