2:^0 



BIRDS OF AMERICA 



Color. — Aboz'c uniform ijrayish-olivc, the tail slightly 

 browner; sides of head, mostly grayish-olive, paling 

 slightly around eyes, but not showing a distinct cyc- 

 rincj, sides of head narrowly streaked with whitish: 

 the upper portion of lores, dull whitish; checks buflfy- 

 whitish, tinged with grayish-olive and streaked with a 

 darker shade of the same; under parts, white, passing 

 on sides and flanks into pale olive-gray ; chest, varying 

 from bufify-white to pale cream-bufif ; a broad streak 

 below cheeks of dusky along each side of throat; chest 

 (sometimes lower throat also) marked with triangular 

 spots of grayish-dusky, those on lower part of chest 

 more transverse ; breast, especially laterally, with trans- 

 verse spots of light grayish-olive ; bill, dusky, the basal 

 half below pale brownish flesh-colored; iris, dark brown. 



Nest and Eggs. — Nest : In low trees, from 2 to 

 7 feet up, occasionally on the ground ; compact and 

 large, composed of interwoven dry grasses, leaves, 

 strips of fine bark; lined with fine dried grass; often 

 dried moss enters largely into its composition. Eggs : 

 3 or 4 (usually the latter number), greenish-blue, 

 speckled with spots of rusty and yellowish-brown. 



Distribution. — Eastern and northern North America ; 

 lireeding from Newfoundland (Canada Bay). Magdalen 

 Islands(?). Labrador, Ungava, and Keewatin, to Mac- 

 kenzie, Alaska (except portion south and east of Cross 

 Sound), and northeastern Siberia; migrating south- 

 ward through eastern United States (west to eastern 

 Montana) to Cuba, Santo Domingo, Panama, and 

 northern South America. 



The annual northward concert tour of this 

 sweet singer may extend from Peru to Alasl<a. 

 This you may learn by consulting his itinerary 



I)ird " hovered in the air fifty feet or more above 

 the moor and repeated its song three times very 

 rapidly." The English Skylark is famous for 





GRAY-CHEEKED THRUSH (! nat. size) 

 In Alaska he may be heard singing twenty hours out of the twenty-four 



set forth in the above paragraph devoted to his 

 distribution. In the long jottrney he makes fre- 

 quent stops to fill short engagements which are 

 much appreciated by those who know of his com- 

 ing, and are familiar with his program. Then 

 he hurries on to attend to his (to him) mucli 

 more important family matters. 



In Alaska, within a hundred miles or so of 

 that strange " Land of the Midnight Sun," his 

 song is heard throughout all of the twenty-odd 

 hours of daylight during his stay, and very often 

 during the short, make-believe night. Near Port 

 Clarence, north of Bering Strait, Mr. Burroughs 

 heard him singing continuouslv in Julv. when 

 there was daylight from about 2 a. m. to about 

 10 p. M. Incidentally he observed one member 

 of the species doing a thing which, he says, he 

 had never seen anv Thrush do before. This 



its flight song, which inspired one of Shelley's 

 most beautiful poems; and there are certain 

 American singers which have the same pretty 

 habit, notably the Bobolink, the Yellow-breasted 

 Chat and the Oven-bird. The Thrushes, how- 

 ever, are essentially singers from perches, and 

 the Robin especially is likely to select the top- 

 most twig of the tallest tree available, from 

 which to carol his evening lay. But, as Mr. 

 Burroughs says, the gray-cheeked singer he 

 heard had " no lofty trees to perch upon," so he 

 " perched upon the air." 



It would seem that, with so much time to 

 ])ractice, this Thrush ought to be a pretty good 

 singer, and though he is not the equal of his 

 cousins, the Wood Thrush, the Hermit, and the 

 Veery, his is by no means a poor or indifferent 

 effort. The quality of the tone is not unlike 



