THE WILLOW THRUSH. 229 



No. 92. 

 WILLOW THRUSH. 



A. O. \J. No. 556 a. Hylocichia fiiscescens salicicola Jvidgway. 



Synonym. — Westicux W'ii.sox Tuursii. 



Description. — .hiult: AIjovc, dull tawny-brown, uniform; wing-cjuills shad- 

 ing to lirownish fuscous on inner webs; below white, the throat, except in the 

 upper middle, and the breast, tinged with cream-buff, and spotted narrowly and 

 sparingly with wedge-shaped marks of the color of the back; sides and flanks 

 more or less tinged with brownisli gray; sides of head huffy-tinged, with mixed 

 brown, save on whitish lores ; bill dark above, light below ; feet light brown. 

 Adult male, length 7.25-7.75 ( 184.2-196.9 I ; wing 3.93 (100) ; tail 2.95 ( 75 ) : bill 

 .55 (14) ; tarsus 1.18 (30). 



Recognition Marks. — Sparrow to Chewink size; dull ciimamon hmwu 

 above; breast butty, li</litly spotted. 



Nesting. — Nest: of leaves, bark-strips, weed-stems and trash, lined with 

 rootlets; placed at height of two or three feet in thickets or, rarely, on ground. 

 Eggs: 3-5, plain greenish blue, not unlike those of the Robin. Av. size, .90 x .65 

 (22.8x 16.5). Season: first or second week in June; one brood. 



General Range. — \\'estcrn interior districts of United States and Canada ; 

 breeding from Xorth Dakota and Manitoba west to interior of British Coluiubia 

 and southward to Nevada. Utah and Colorado ; southward during migrations thru 

 .Arizona, etc., to Brazil, also thru the Mississippi Valley and, casually, eastward. 



Range in Washington. — Summer resident in the hilly districts of north- 

 western Washington. — Blue IMountains( ?). 



Authorities. — Howe, .Auk, XX'H. Jan. 1900, p. 19 (Spokane). T( ?). J. 



Specimens. — Prov. 



THE Willow Thrush shares with its even more retiring cousin, the 

 Oii\e-back. the forests of the northwestern portion of the State. Here it may 

 be found in the seclusion of .spring draws and alder bottoms, or in the miscel- 

 laneous cover which lines the banks of the larger streams. It is confined 

 almost entirely to the vicinity of water, and spends much of its time on the 

 flamp ground poking among the fallen leaves and searching the nooks and 

 corners of tree-roots. Since the bird is but a Hitting shade, one cannot easily 

 determine its color-pattern, and must learn rather the raqge and quality of its 

 notes. The bird is, rather than has, a voice, an elusive voice, a weird and won- 

 derful voice. .And (jiily after one has heard the song, with its reverberant, 

 sweet thunder, and its e.xquisitely diminishing cadences, as it wells v\\) at even- 

 tide from some low thicket, may one be said to know the Willow Thrush. 



For the most jiart the bird betrays interest in your movements by a sub- 

 dued yeii'i, a note of com])laint and admonition, variously likened to a grunt, 

 a bleat, or a nasal interjection. Not infref|uently this becomes a clearly 



