Birds Observed on Mt. Mansfield. 85 



ain. Rather common. Young hatched June 11. A bird and nest 

 of unusual interest found June 8. Nest in group of six young maple 

 trees growing closely together. Broken sticks had lodged in the 

 group, and large beech leaves made the foundation of the nest at 

 about 18 inches from the ground. *The nest was of moss, thick 

 walled, deeply cupped, well sunken in the bed of leaves. Lined 

 with fine grass and fibers. I did not handle the eggs, but they 

 looked like typical Wilson eggs. The bird was not typical Wilson. 

 No warm tints anywhere. Back, wings, tail and rump just the color 

 of the young maple bark. Throat matched the blanched beech 

 leaves over which it was lifted. Breast creamy; also sides. 

 Streaked on sides and on breast, streaks running to the bill, but 

 leaving throat entirely clear. Throat, eye ring and lores white, 

 with the lores strongly marked. Calls and alarm notes those of the 

 Wilson, and neither song nor notes of any other Thrush heard in 

 vicinity. Studied the bird at range of six feet- for three hours at a 

 time, for three days. Four young safely hatched June 10. 



70. Hylocichia aliciae bicknellii. Bicknell Thrush. — Abundant 

 on the whole mountain crest wherever the swampy ground sup- 

 ported a growth of dwarfed spruce or fir. Found as low on the 

 mountain road as the turn which first brings the hotel in sight. 

 In full song when I first reached the summit, June 13, singing from 

 earliest dawn till 10 P. M., both about the house and on the under- 

 bill side of the ridge. After June 20 song diminished, but often 

 heard as late as July 29. Young well grown July 22. Their thrush 

 habit of singing in the tops of dead trees or on projecting dead 

 branches gave one much opportunity to see them. Were shy of 

 near approach till young were hatched, then came about house and 

 barn from out their cover, feeding freely on the ground and in the 

 barn-yard. Occasionally while incubating would be seen running 

 a little ahead of us on the bald rocky ridges toward the Chin, feed- 

 ing at the edges of the bogs, and slipping into the dense growth 

 if too nearly approached. The birds showed variation in both color 

 and size, but the spotting in perfect harmony with olive of the back. 

 The calls and alarm notes resemble the other thrush notes, but are 

 easily separable, the "when" being thinner than that of the Wilson. 

 The "cluck" was a common note; also the notes resembling the 

 Nighthawk, a call which is like no other Thrush imless it should be 

 the Alice, with which I am not familiar. Mr. Howell gives the song 

 "we6 a wee a wee chi chi wee, whistled through closed teeth." I 

 heard it mostly given wee a wee a we we, then the chi chi, the last 

 thin and high, but with the vibrant quality of the Wilson without 

 change of pitch, closing with wea wea. On these last two unac- 

 cented notes only an interlude between repetitions of the vibrant 



*One of the Polytrichiums. Plants laid close together, as they 

 grow, the root ends beautifully curved at the bottom and the cap- 

 sules crowded together at the rim and overlapped by the blanched 

 leaves of the beech. 



