14 JVBSTS AND EGGS OF BIRDS. 



the part of the parents. The eggs of AHce's thrush Dr. Brewer 

 excellently portrays as either of a deep green tint, or green slightly 

 tinged with hlue ; and they are marked with spots of russet and 

 yellowish-brown, varying both in size and frequency. Their 

 mean length is .93 of an inch, and their mean breadth .64. 

 The ground color is more distinctly blue, than in eggs of the 

 olive-back, and their shape smaller and more round. 



Variety tistidatus., the Oregon thrush, is restricted to the 

 Pacific Coast, occurring abundantly in the breeding season from 

 Lat. 34® in California to Alaska. It nests in central Califor- 

 nia by the middle of May — fresh eggs being found at Santa 

 Cruz, for example, from May 15 to June 6 — and farther north 

 several days later, building generally on a horizontal branch of 

 a low tree, or in hazel, willow or brier bushes. The nests are 

 well described as "large, compact, strongly constructed and 

 neat. They measure about 5 inches in their external diameter, 

 with a height outside of 3 ; the cavity is comparatively shal- 

 low, being rarely 3 inches in depth. The external portions 

 are constructed almost entirely of Hypiium mosses matted and 

 glued together, and sparingly intei-woven with dry leaves and 

 fine fibrous roots, and are lined with finer materials of the same 

 kind." Dr. Suckley tells us that the moss, with which the 

 nests are so profusely covered, takes root in the damp climate 

 near the coast, and grows until it forms a large mass. 



The eggs are pale green in ground-color, variously spotted 

 with reddish-brown over underlying suffusions of neutral tint 

 and faded russet. Sometimes the blotches are distinct, small 

 and frequent, all over the eggs ; in other specimens Uiey are 

 large and washed out, with dottings between, while in some 

 there is a universal dense clouding of fine specks of faded tint. 

 In size they average .87 by .73 of an inch. Two broods are 

 raised, even at Puget's Sound. 



