622 THE BIRDS OF MAINE 



County Records. — Franklin ; rare summer resident, have taken nest, eggs 

 and bird, (Swain) ; at Avon, July 26, (Sweet, J. M, 0. S. 1906, p. 97). Kenne- 

 bec ; given in Smith's List as having been taken at Vassalboro, (Smith, For- 

 est & Stream). Oxford; have secured two sets of eggs during a period of 

 eight years, (Nash). York; taken at Saco, (Goodale, Auk 2, p. 215). 



The Wood Thrush is a rare bird in Maine, essentially a bird 

 of the Alleghanian fauna and confined to extreme southwestern 

 Maine as a rare and possibly regular summer resident. Of its 

 habits I can write nothing save through hearsay and by com- 

 piling the observations of others. The species is said to reach 

 Massachusetts as early as May tenth and to remain until 

 September fifteenth. They are said to occur in the shrubbery 

 of private grounds as well as in the woods and groves, though 

 being more distinctively a woodland bird. The call note is 

 said to be a "pit-pit" rapidly repeated until it resembles the 

 sound produced by striking large pebbles together, (Chapman, 

 B. E. N. A. p. 396.) During the cooler hours of the day in 

 June, July and even August they are said to mount to suitable 

 perches on the higher branches of trees and there to sing a 

 series of rich, liquid, metallic notes. When feeding and at 

 other times than when singing, they are birds of more terres- 

 trial habits, being more often on or near the ground. 



The nests are placed in small saplings in woods and thickets 

 usually not over twelve feet from the ground. A nest in my 

 collection which was taken for me near Haverhill, Massachu- 

 setts, May 27, 1892, was placed in a beech tree in a damp piece 

 of woods, at a height of twelve feet. It is composed outside of 

 damp semi-rotten beech and other leaves and grass, within a 

 shell of mud and rotten wood, lined with fine black rootlets. 

 The depth outside is two and three-quarters and inside one 

 and a half inches, the diameter outside is five and inside 

 three inches. The eggs measure 0.96 x 0.70, 0.98 x 0.70, 

 0.97 X 0.73, 1.02 X 0.74. Three to four plain greenish blue 

 eggs are laid which are on the average slightly lighter colored 

 than those of the Robin. The food is said to consist largely 

 of insects. 



