222 BULLETIN 19 6, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



many dragon-flies and butterflies indicates that this thrush is a skilful 

 flycatcher as such insects are swift, erratic fliers." 



Mrs. Harding (MS.) sends Mr. Bent the following pretty account 

 of a young veery issuing from an egg-shell: "A pair of veeries had built 

 their nest in a patch of laurel near the lake. Knowing that the clutch 

 of eggs was ready to hatch, I examined the nest and found two tiny 

 birds and one egg just hatching. Lifting it carefully out of the nest, 

 I held it in my hand and watched the tip of the young bird's bill 

 pierce the shell. Very methodically it drilled a series of holes around 

 the large end of the egg, resting between efforts, then expanding its 

 body until the shell began to crack open. Slowly the crack widened 

 until the two halves separated, and the nestling freed itself from half 

 the shell. The other piece remained on the top of its head like a blue 

 hat for several seconds." 



Frank L. Burns (1921) gives the period of nestling life as 10 days. 



Plumages. — [Author's note: Dr. Dwight (1900) describes the 

 juvenal plumage of the Wilson's thrush, a much better name than 

 veery, as follows: "Above, including sides of head, deep raw umber- 

 brown with dusky edgings and large guttate spots of tawny olive. 

 Wings and tail tawny olive brown the greater coverts and tertiaries 

 edged with tawny olive and darker tipped. Below, white, strongly 

 tinged on jugulum, less strongly on the chin, breast, sides and crissum 

 with tawny olive, heavily spotted or barred on the jugulum, faintly 

 on the breast and anterior parts and sides of the abdomen with clove- 

 brown, the feathers also barred with a subterminal tawny band. 

 Submalar stripes dusky." 



A partial post juvenal molt, involving the contour plumage and the 

 lesser wing coverts, but not the rest of the wings or the tail, begins 

 about the middle of July and is finished in August. This produces 

 a first winter plumage, which is like that of the adult at that season, 

 except that the young bird retains until the next summer molt the 

 juvenal greater wing coverts and tertiaries, which are edged with 

 tawny-olive and are darker-tipped, thus distinguishing it from the 

 adult all winter and spring. There is, apparently, no spring molt, 

 the nuptial plumage being acquired by wear and a little fading of the 

 buff shades and the spots on the breast. A complete molt occurs dur- 

 ing the following July and August, when old and young birds become 

 indistinguishable. Adults have but the one postnuptial molt in July 

 and August. The sexes are alike in all plumages.l 



Food. — Waldo L. McAtee (1926) gives the following summary of 

 the veery's food: 



This bird scarcely enters the orchard and garden, hence the fruit which it 

 consumes (and that practically the whole of the vegetable food) is wild. It com- 

 poses about four-tenths of the subsistence, the preferred kinds being juneberries, 



