THE OSPREY. 



Ao lllustrfdted iVlagazioe of Popular Ornithology. 



Pahlisbed Montblv. 



VOLUMK IV. 



OCTOBER, 1899. 



Number 2. 



Original Articles. 



THE HOME OF A PAIR OF WOOD THRUSHES. 

 Bv R. \V. Johnson, St. Thomas, Out. 



The city in which it is at jjresent my fortune 

 to reside, is built on the hig'her land overlooking- 

 a somewhat extensive valley. The latter must 

 have been at one time the bed of a majestic 

 river, but, whatever we might imagine of the 

 original view, we find that the lapse of centu- 

 ries has produced an even more beautiful pic- 

 ture from green fields, winding streams and 

 wooded hill-sides. But, interesting- as the land- 

 scape consecjuently is to the amateur photog- 

 rapher, it has for me far greater beauties, for I 

 always think of it as one of the principal routes 

 by which our returning birds, after crossing 

 Lake Erie, distribute themselves over the coun- 



A t'AiK OF Wood Thkushus. 

 try to their summer homes. Smaller ravines, 

 too, tributaries of the orig-inal watercourse, in- 

 tersect the suburbs of our cit}-, and up these 

 come all manner of migrants in search of food 

 and seclusion while resting for a day or two on 

 their long- northward journey. "What a para- 

 dise for a bird-man!" said I on my arrival in 

 this city of ravines, bridges and maple avenues, 

 and since then the number of my ornithological 

 discoveries has been more than I anticipated. 



One evening last spring- I was delighted to 

 hear some unknown singer in a small ravine a 



few rods from my home, and after a brief search 

 we found him fairly well up in a young maple, 

 displaying his conspicuously spotted breast, and 

 singing with all the pride of a cock-robin after 

 a summer shower. How delighted we were to 

 have found this species at last! From his re- 

 semblance to a young robin in his first plumage 

 we knew he could be no other bird than the long- 

 looked-for wood thrush, which, thoug-h some- 

 what common a few degrees farther south, 

 breeds rather sparingly in Ontario. 



When the writer was a boy his first interest in 

 bir.ls themselves was created by a desire for a 

 typical collection of their eggs. Even now a 

 bird with a nest and eggs is far more interest- 

 ing- than a dozen migrants, so the thrushes were 

 carefully watched until building- operations 

 were begun. A site was soon chosen and by 

 Ma3- 19, the nest was completed four feet up in 

 a maple sapling on the hill-side. For a corner- 

 stone there was used a large piece of foolscap 

 on which some lad from a school nearby had 

 tried to show his teacher w^hat he knew of Eng- 

 lish grammar; and so substantial a foundation 

 was it that the structure of leaves and weed- 

 stems built thereon afforded Mrs. Thrush a solid 

 though somewhat bulky looking home. Two 

 days later the nest contained the first egg, and 

 by the 25th of the month the set of four was 

 completed. Scarcely different in color and 

 shjipe from those of a robin, the eggs averaged 

 somewhat smaller, in this case 1.05 bA' .76 inches; 

 and so pretty were they that it is difficult to say 

 whether the bird was nKire proud of her treas- 

 ures than I was lost in admiration of them. 



Now came a period in which the habits of the 

 birds were easilj^ observed, for the female was 

 nearly always on her eggs, and his merrA' song 

 easily indicated the whereabouts of her glad- 

 hearted husband. On our approach we general- 

 ly heard the sharp alarm-note of the male, and 

 the female would leave the nest with a low 

 churring sound and alight nearby to await the 

 result of our visit. She was not nearly so shj' 

 as Wilson's, and after a few da3's she began to 

 fear us so little that she would not leave her 

 nest unless we came almost within reach. Then 

 as soon as we had left the immediate vicinity 

 the trustful creature would return, always flj-ing 

 close to the ground and gliding up gracefully 

 onto her eggs. 



