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218 ORNITHOLOGY AND OOLOGY. 
minate; tarsi about as long as the skull, considerably exceeding the middle toe; 
under tail coverts reaching within about half an inch of the end of the tail; color 
above olivaceous; beneath whitish, thickly streaked on the breast and sides; wings 
and tail immaculate. 
SEIURUS AUROCAPILLUS. — Swainson. 
The Oven-bird; Golden-crowned Thrush. 
Motacilla aurocapilla, Linneus. Syst. Nat., I. (1766) 884. Gm., I. (1788) 982. 
Turdus aurocapillus, Wilson. Am. Orn., If. (1810) 88. Aud. Orn. Biog., II. 
(1884) 258; V. (1839) 447. 
Turdus (Seiurus) aurocapillus, Nuttall. Man., I. (1832) 355. 
DESCRIPTION. 
Above uniform olive-green, with a tinge of yellow; crown with two narrow 
streaks of black from the bill, enclosing a median and much broader one of brownish- 
orange; beneath white; the breast, sides of the body, and a maxillary line streaked 
with black. The female, and young of the year, are not appreciably different. 
Length, six inches; wing, three inches; tail, two and forty one-hundredths 
inches. 
This beautiful and well-known bird is a common summer 
inhabitant of New England, breeding abundantly in all the 
States. It arrives from the South about the last week in 
April or first in May, and soon commences building. The 
birds are not often paired on their arrival, and many are 
the little quarrels and battles that occur between two or 
three males for the possession of one of the opposite sex. 
The birds both work diligently in the construction of the 
nest, which is a model of neatness and ingenuity. It is 
built on the ground in the woods, usually in a dry situation. 
The materials used are dry leaves and grasses: these are 
arranged compactly together, and built over at the top, the 
entrance being on the side, like an old-fashioned oven; 
hence the familiar name of the “ Oven-bird.” The nest is 
usually placed in a slight hollow in the earth, scratched by 
the birds, and is lined with soft grasses and hairs. The 
eges are from three to five in number, usually four. They 
are of a delicate creamy-white color, and spotted irregularly 
with different shades of reddish-brown ; and some specimens 
have a number of spots of obscure lilac-color. The mark- 
