18 NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



is comparatively shallow, being rarely 2 inches in depth. The external 

 portions are constructed almost entirely of Hypnvm mosses, matted to- 

 gether and sparingly interwoven with dry leaves and fine fibrous roots, 

 and are lined with finer materials of the same kind. These nests most 

 nearly resemble in their material and in their position those of Swainson's 

 Thrush. 



Mr. Hepburn found these birds very abundant about Victoria. It does 

 not usually breed there before the last of May, though in one exceptional 

 instance he found a nest with young birds on the 24th of that month. 



The eggs vary in size and shape, ranging from .77 to .94 in length, and 

 from .65 to .69 in breadth. They also vary in their ground color and in the 

 tints of the spots and markings. The ground color is light green or liglit 

 blue, and the markings are variously yellowish-brown and lilac, or dark 

 brown and slate. 



Mr. Grayson found this thrush very abundant in the month of January, 

 in the thickest of the woods, in the islands of the Three Marias, on the 

 Pacific coast of Mexico. They were very timid and shy, more so than any 

 bird that he saw on those islands. It frequently uttered a low plaintive 

 whistle, and seemed solitary in its habits. 



Turdus pallasi, Cabanis. 



EUFOUS-TAILED THRUSH; HEEMIT THRUSH. 



Titrclus 2mllasii, Cabanis, Wiegmann's Arcliiv, 1847 (i), 205. — Baird, Birds N. Am. 



1858, 212. — Ib. Rev. Am. B. 1864, 14. — Sclater, P. Z. S. 1859, 325 ??. — Ib. Catal. 



1861, 2, No. 7. — RiDGWAY. — Maynard. — Samuel.s, 148. Turdus solitarius, 



Wilson, Amer. Orn. V, 1812, 95 (not of Linnjeus). —Sclater, P. Z. S. 1857, 212. 



Turdus minor, Bon. Obs. Wilson, 1825, No. 72. Turdus gut.iatus, Cabanis, Tschudi, 



Fauna Peruana, 1844, 187 (not Muscicapa giMata of Pallas). 

 Additional figures : Aud. Birds Am. Ill, pi. cxlvi. — Ib. Orn. Biog. I, pi. Iviii. 



Sp. Char. Tail slightly emarginate. Above light olive-brown, with a scarcely per- 

 ceptible shade of reddish, passing, however, into decided rufous on the rump, upper tail- 

 coverts, aud tail, and to a less degree on the outer surface of the wings. Beneath Avhite, 

 with a scarcely appreciable shade of pale buff across the fore part of the breast, and 

 sometimes on the throat ; the sides of the throat and the fore part of the breast with 

 rather sharply defined subtriangular spots of dark olive-brown ; the sides of the breast 

 with paler and less distinct spots of the same. Sides of the body under the wings of a 

 paler shade than the back. A whitish ring round the eye ; ear-coverts very obscurely 

 streaked with paler. Length, 7.50 inches; wing, 3.84; tail, 3.25; tarsus, 1.16; No. 2,092. 



Hab. Eastern North America. Mexico ? Not found in Cuba, fide Gundlach. 



In spring the olive above is very much that of eastern specimens of 

 swainsoni ; in winter specimens it is much browner, and almost as much 

 so as in fnscescens. Young birds have the feathers of the head, back, and 

 wing coverts streaked centrally with drop-shaped spots of rusty yellowish 



Habits. Until quite recently the " Ground Swamp Eobin," or Hermit 



