VEERY 221 



once found a nest built on the horizontal branch of an apple tree 

 fully ten feet above the ground." 



Dr. Thomas M. Brewer (1878) mentions a nest "built upon a 

 horizontal limb of a tree, fifteen feet from the ground," and cites a 

 case in which "Mr. George O. Welch several years since found a nest 

 of this Thrush in Lynn at a height of twenty-five feet above the 

 ground." 



Edward H. Forbush (1929) reports the experience of "Mrs. Richard 

 B. Harding, who spent a large part of a summer watching thirty 

 nests of this species in New Hampshire and who has kindly given 

 me her notes, is positive that the bird usually rears two broods there. 

 The building of the nests required from six to ten days depending on 

 the weather. By using a blind she was able to watch a nest from 

 the time the young were hatched until they left it. Mrs. Harding 

 says that both parents joined in guarding and defending the young. 

 The male was most aggressive in driving other birds away from the 

 nesting area and attacked red squirrels and chipmunks which tres- 

 passed upon his precincts, flying at them with great fury." 



Eggs. — [Author's note: The set of eggs of the veery usually con- 

 sists of four, but sometimes only three and occasionally five. These 

 closely resemble small eggs of the wood thrush, or more closely 

 those of the hermit thrushes, in shape and color, though the more 

 elongated shapes seem to be less frequent in those that I have ex- 

 amined. They are only slightly glossy. The color usually varies 

 from "Nile blue" to "pale Nile blue," with the usual variations 

 seen in robins' eggs. They are almost always unmarked, but spotted 

 eggs have been reported occasionally. Verdi Burtch tells me that out 

 of 28 nests that he has seen, only two held spotted eggs. The spots 

 are in various shades of brown. Paul F. Eckstorm mentions in his 

 notes an egg that was "heavily spotted with pale brown in rather 

 large spots." The measurements of 50 eggs in the United States 

 National Museum average 22.4 by 16.7 millimeters; the eggs showing 

 the four extremes measure 25.7 by 15.8, 23.4 by 18.0, and 20.6 by 15.8 

 millimeters.] 



Young. — Edward H. Forbush (1929), on the authority of Mrs. 

 Richard B. Harding, gives the incubation period of the veery as 10 to 

 12 days, and, continuing the report of her observations, says: "The 

 young were not fed by regurgitation on the first day, but with small 

 hairless caterpillars together with soft white grubs and other small 

 insects, all of which had been thoroughly bruised between the man- 

 dibles of the parent bird. This diet was continued for about four days. 

 On the fifth day dragon-flies and slugs were added and a day or two 

 later black swallow-tailed butterflies were added. The capture of 



