164 ORNITHOLOGY AND OOLOGY. 



streaks of dark-brown, excepting on the chin, throat, middle of the belly, and under 

 tail coverts ; these spots, anteriorly, are reddish-brown in their terminal portion ; the 

 inner surface of the wing and the inner edges of the primaries are cinnamon ; the con- 

 cealed portion of the quills otherwise is dark-brown ; the median and greater wing 

 coverts become blackish-brown towards the end, followed by white, producing two 

 conspicuous bands ; the tail feathers are all rufous, the external ones obscurely tipped 

 with whitish; the shafts of the same color with the vanes. 



Length, eleven and fifteen one-hundredths inches; wing, four and fifteen one- 

 hundredths ; tail, five and twenty one-hundredths inches ; tarsus, one and thirty 

 one-hundredths ; iris, 'golden-yellow. 



Probably none of our summer visitors are better known, 

 and none are greater favorites than this bird. Its beautiful 

 song and well-known beneficial habits have endeared it to 

 the farmer, who takes it under his protection, as he should 

 all the Thrushes, and encourages its approach to the garden 

 and orchard. The Brown Thrush arrives from the South 

 about the middle of April in Connecticut and Rhode Island, 

 and the 10th of May in Maine and the other northern dis- 

 tricts. The birds seem to be mated before their arrival 

 here, as they are almost always observed in pairs at their 

 first appearance. The nest is built about the middle of 

 May, sooner or later, according to latitude. It is usually 

 placed in a bush or thicket of briers or vines, sometimes on 

 the ground at the foot of a clump of bushes. It is com- 

 posed first of a layer of twigs, then leaves and strips of 

 cedar and grape-vine bark, and the whole is covered with 

 fibrous roots : the nest is pretty deeply hollowed, and lined 

 with fine roots and hairs. The eggs are from three to five 

 in number. Their color is a greenish or dirty white, over 

 -which are thickly sprinkled minute dots of reddish-brown : 

 their shape is ovate, and their dimensions vary from 1.16 

 by .80 inch to 1.06 by .76 inch. A great number before me 

 exhibit these variations, which probably are the greatest of 

 this species, as the eggs are generally nearly of a size. Four 

 eggs in a nest collected in New Hampshire have the follow- 

 ing measurements : 1.12 by .78 inch, 1.12 by .76 inch, 1 .08 

 by .76 inch, 1.06 by .76 inch. But one brood is reared in 

 the season in the Northern States. 



