WILSON'S THRUSH. 15 



6. WILSON'S THRUSH. 

 TURDUS FUSCESCENS Stephens. 

 Tawny Thrush; Veery (New England). 



This beautiful singer breeds from the latitude of Pennsyl- 

 vania ajzd lozva^ noi-thxvard to Qiiebec, westward alono- the 

 upper Missouri, and in the valleys of Utah and Colorado. 



The veery makes its appearance in New England from the 

 south, early in May, and begins to build during the third week 

 of that month ; but in the centre of Maine the date is a fort- 

 night later. At Pembina, Dakota, Dr. Coues found fresh 

 eggs on June 9, and in southern Colorado Mr. Henshaw took 

 them on the 19th. Except in the far north, where its breeding 

 is delayed until midsummer, it no doubt brings up two broods 

 in a season. Audubon and Wilson Flagg speak of the nest as 

 being built on mounds of sticks and grass, in the darkest part 

 of the woods, and say that it is made to resemble the surround- 

 ing objects ; while Nuttall and others write that it sometimes 

 chooses bushes and low trees. These situations are exceptional, 

 for the nest is almost invariably placed unsupported upon the 

 ground. Those I myself have found were in a secluded swampy 

 place distant from houses, in fern-tussocks ; and although one 

 was in Lorain county, Ohio, and the other near Norwich, 

 Conn., the similarity was complete, and encircling strips of 

 the inner bark of the grape-vine were a characteristic feat- 

 ure of both. These nests were composed of dead leaves, 

 broad grasses and strips of bark wound round and round, and 

 thin chips and remnants of dried plants, lined with finer strips 

 and threads of the same. The walls were not woven or over- 

 cast, and it was with great difficulty that the nest could be kept 

 together. The site is almost always a damp one, and hence a 

 thick mass of dead leaves is usually brought together by the 

 bird, upon which the superstructure rests. There seems to be 

 little variation in the m_anner ; but one of Henshaw's nests from 

 Colorado had been built on top of a nest of the preceding year, 

 as occasionally happens with the robin. A nest found by 

 Arthur F. Gray, at Danvers, Mass., was placed at the foot of 

 an alder-clump eight inches above the ground. The base was 



