VEERY 227 



certainly at its best on a warm spring evening. If the moon comes up 

 after sunset, the aroused veery is worth hearing." 



Francis H. Allen (MS.) wrote in his notes for July 4, 1924: "One 

 of several veeries singing had at least four different harsh, rasping 

 notes, which it uttered between each two songs. Not all the notes 

 were always present, but at least one of them always, I think. One 

 was a high-pitched, disyllabic note, somewhat sibilant, which seemed 

 more like a part of the song than the others. It generally immediately 

 preceded the song proper. The bird sang constantly for some time 

 till all the veeries stopped singing about 7 :48, and the harsh notes were 

 as regular as the song proper. The bird mewed occasionally, too. 

 The strange notes suggested a catbird. One note was short and rather 

 high-pitched, with a rising inflection. The other monosyllabic notes 

 were lower-pitched and somewhat more prolonged." 



Again he wrote, on May 21, 1935: "Early this morning I heard a 

 veery singing over and over again, with hardly a second (I should say) 

 between songs and keeping it up for some time — it may have been five 

 minutes." 



Field marks. — As indicated by the veery's old name, the tawny 

 thrush, its back is a yellowish brown. This color and the almost 

 unmarked breast serve to distinguish the veery from the other 

 thrushes, which, although nearly alike in size and outline, have olive 

 backs and are more heavily streaked or spotted beneath. Also the 

 hermit has a reddish-brown tail, and the wood thrush has a reddish 

 crown. 



Enemies.— Veeries, like most ground-nesting birds, are exposed to 

 attack by predatory mammals, such as red squirrels and chipmunks, 

 noted under "Nesting." 



William Brewster (1936) gives a long account of an attack of a 

 snake on a veery's nest, and Harold S. Peters (1933) reports the 

 finding of two species of flies and later (1936) one louse and another 

 species of fly in the plumage of the veery. 



Friedmann (1929), speaking of the veery vs. the cowbird, says: 

 "A common victim; more so in some places than in others. At 

 Ithaca, out of some thirty nests found, seven were parasitized. About 

 twenty other records have come to my notice, ranging from Montreal, 

 Maine, Connecticut, and New York, west to Illinois and Michigan. 

 * * * This bird makes no attempt to get rid of the parasitic 

 eggs foisted upon it and usually incubates and rears the young inter- 

 lopers." 



Fall. — The veery's song period comes to an end, here in eastern 

 Massachusetts, within a few days of the middle of July, and after this 

 date we see little more of the birds. In August, even when we walk 

 through the veeries' favorite woodlands where they have been in 



