12 J\rBSTS AND EGGS OF BIRDS. 



blue, like those of the robin, and measure .85 by .72 of an inch. 

 It is not easy to understand wh}' this variety should depart so 

 widely from the custom of the other hermit thrushes, all of 

 which nestle upon the ground. 



The dwarf thrush is chiefly restricted to the Pacific coast. 

 It breeds from Oregon northwards, and in the Sierra Nevada ; 

 and except in being slightly smaller, its nests and eggs are like 

 those of the eastern bird. 



5. THE OLIVE-BACKED THRUSH. 

 TURDUS SWAINSONI Cabanis. 

 Swainson's Thrush; Swamp-robin (Maine). 



The typical olive-backed thrush wanders in its migrations 

 over nearly the whole of the continent, but is resident in sum- 

 mer only north of JMassac/msetts, except about Salt Lake, 

 Utah, and in rare instances among the remote mountains of 

 New Jersey and Pennsylvania. If we are to believe that Wil- 

 son and the other early ornithologists really meant this bird in 

 their accounts of the " hermit" thrush, — and there seems little 

 doubt of it, — then their record must be accepted as proving 

 more southerly localities than it is now known to inhabit in 

 the nesting season. 



Swainson's thrush begins its housebuilding in Maine and 

 New Hampshire the last days of May ; and its fresh eggs have 

 been found at the Isle of Grand Menan from June 5 to 21. In 

 the Wahsatch Mountains, Utah, the date is a fortnight later. 

 The favorite building location is beside a woodland stream or 

 near a path or road ; the depth of the woods .is avoided. The 

 positions chosen vary. Among the large number of nests 

 which have been found at Lake Umbagog by Deane, Bailey, 

 Brewster, Purdie and others, some were placed at a consider- 

 able height on the horizontal branches of forest trees ; others 

 near the ground in small evergreens ; and some rested on the 

 tops or broken limbs of dead "stubs" in the most exposed 

 manner. In Utah, it chooses the willow bushes in the bottoms 

 of the canons. 



