EASTERN BLUEBIRD 233 



of two nests that contained five eggs each of the eastern cowbird! In 

 one of these last two nests there were two eggs of the thrush and in 

 the other only one. 



HYLOCICHLA FUSCESCENS FULIGINOSA Howe 



NEWFOUNDLAND VEERY 



HABITS 



Forty-five years elapsed after Reginald Heber Howe, Jr. (1900), 

 described and named the Newfoundland veery before the A. O. U. 

 committee added this subspecies to our Check-list in their twentieth 

 supplement. Comparing it with the other two recognized races, 

 Mr. Howe gives it the following subspecific characters: "Size slightly 

 larger. Upper parts, especially on the head, distinctly brownish, 

 much darker and not of the tawny shade of typical Juscescens, and 

 lacking the greenish tinge of salicicola. Throat, lores, and upper breast 

 suffused with buff, though perhaps less so than in juscescens (in salici- 

 cola buff is practically absent), the upper breast and usually also the 

 throat spotted heavily with broad arrow-shaped brown markings 

 suggesting very strongly the throat and breast of H. u. swainsonii. 

 The breast markings of both Juscescens and salicicola are narrow and 

 more penciled and lighter in shade. Bill darker and heavier." 



He gives its range as "Newfoundland (also possibly Anticosti and 

 Labrador)." 



Although we have no information on the habits of the Newfound- 

 land veery, it seems fair to assume that they are not especially different 

 from those of its western relative, for I found it fairly common along 

 the Fox Island River and along other willow-bordered streams in 

 western Newfoundland. 



SIALIA SIALIS SIALIS (Linnaeus) 



EASTERN BLUEBIRD 



HABITS 



The bluebird is well named, for he wears a coat of the purest, 

 richest, and most gorgeous blue on back, wings, and tail; no North 

 American bird better deserves the name, for no other flashes before 

 our admiring eyes so much brilliant blue. It has been said that he 

 carries on his back the blue of heaven and the rich brown of the 

 freshly turned earth on his breast; but who has ever seen the bluest 

 sky as blue as the bluebird's back? The early settlers in Plymouth 

 Colony welcomed this friendly, cheerful songster, which reminded 

 them of their beloved English robin redbreast, and they named it 

 the "blue robin," an appropriate name still used among some children. 



792825—49 16 



