8 NESTS AND EGGS OF N. A. BIRDS. 



that region, which in the damp climate near the coast continue to 

 grow in that position, and form large masses. 



The number of eggs is usually five. *** The eggs vary in size 

 and shape, ranging from .77 to .94 in length and from .65 to .69 in 

 breadth. They dIso vary in their ground color and in the tints of 

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

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

 a dark brown and slate." — Baird, Brewer and Ridgway's N. 

 A. Birds, vol. i, pp. 17, 18. 



4c. HYLOCICHLA USTULATA SWAINSONI. 



OLIVE-BACKED "J^RUSH. 



This bird is an inhabitant of Eastern North America; westward 

 as far as Nevada ; north to Great Slave Lake and south to South 

 America. 



It is known to breed abundantly among the Wahsatch Mountains. 

 The nests of this bird are about four inches in diameter and two in 

 depth. "The eggs, numbering four or five, measure about seven- 

 eighths of an inch in length by five-eighths in breadth ; but much 

 variation, both in size and shape, has been observed. They are 

 light greenish-blue in color, fully speckled with reddish-brown and 

 other shades. 



Any thrush's eggs like this found in a nest above the ground, 

 described by early authors, were almost certainly those of the 

 Olive-backed Thrush, to whatever species they may have been 

 accredited."! 



"Their nests in Nova Scotia, wherever observed, were among 

 the thick woods on horizontal branches of a forest-tree, usually 

 about five feet from the ground. Those observed in the Arctic 

 regions by Mr. Kennicott were frequently not more than two feet 

 from the ground. * * *' They are more elaborately and neatly 

 constructed than those of any other of our thrushes, except, per- 

 haps, of T. tistulatus,^ (Russet-backed Thrush.) "Conspicuous 

 among the materials are the Hypman mosses, which by their dark 

 fibrous masses give a very distinctive character to these nests, and 

 distinguish them from all except those of the T, ustulatus, which 

 they resemble. Besides these materials are found fine sedges, 



t U. S. Gbological Survey op the Tebeitories, Part First, entitled "Birds of the CoJorado 

 Valley," by Elliott Coues, (p. 38.) 



