THE VARIED THRUSH. 



253 



Old nests are common; and groups of lialf a dozen in tlie space of a single 

 acre are evidently the consecutixe product of a single pair of birds. 



There is a notable division of territory among these Thrushes. As a rule, 

 they maintain a distance of half a mile or so from any nthcr nesting pair. 

 In two instances, howexer, Mr. Brown found nests within three hun- 

 dred yards of neigli- 

 bors. 



W h e n one a])- 

 proaches the center 

 of a rcser\e, the 

 brooding f e m a 1 e 

 slips (|uietl\- from 

 the nest and joins 

 herniate in denounc- 

 ing t h e intruder. 

 The birds flit rest- 

 lessly from branch 

 to branch, or from 

 log to log, uttering 

 repeatedly a stern 

 tsook, which is al- 

 most their sole re- 

 course. If the nest 

 is discovered and ex- 

 amined, the birds 

 will (lisapjiear sil- 

 ently; and the 

 chances are that they 

 will never again be 

 seen in tliat lo- 

 cality. 



A nest found on 

 May loth, with two 

 a ]x:iint ten feet out 



Taken at Glacier. 



Pholo by 



the Author. 



.MCST .\Nn EGCS OF \ARIKn THRUSH. 



on 



was revisited on the utli. It was saddled at 

 leaning hemlock, wJiicii jutted from the river 

 bank over the roaring Nooksack. The pr.)nniience oj the situation, in 

 this instance, proved the owner's undoing. .\n Owl had evidently snatched 

 her up on the previous night, the first of her maternal duty; for the nest 

 and the neighboring foliage were strewn with feathers. Yet so suitly had 

 the marauder executed his first coup that not an egg was broken. The 

 eggs were three in number, subovatc, of a slightly greenish blue, beauti- 

 fully and heavily spotted— one might almost say' blotched— with rufous, 

 the hanfi.somest. Mr. Brown savs. ever seen. 



