328 



NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS EGGS. 



[Grayish white.] 



753, Black-tailed Gnatcatcher. Polioptila californica. 



Range. Pacific coast of southern California and northern Lower California. 

 ^^^^ This bird is very similar to the last but has still less white on 



the outer tail feathers. Like the last, the nests of this species 

 usually lack the exterior covering of lichens, being made of 

 vegetable fibres and plant down, firmly quilted together and 

 saddled on horizontal limbs or placed in forks of trees at any 

 [Greenish white.] height from the ground. Their eggs are greenish white, specked 

 with bright reddish brown. Size .55 x .44. Data. Escondido, Cal., May 17, 

 1903. 5 eggs. Nest on a large limb of a sycamore, 30 feet above ground; made 

 of weed fibres, etc., lined with hair and fine fibres. Collector, J. B. Dixon. 



THRUSHES, SOLITAIRES, BLUEBIRDS, ETC. Family TURDIDAE. 



754, Townsend Solitaire. Myadestes toumsendii. 



Range. Western United States, breeding from Arizona, New Mexico and 

 southern California north to British Columbia. 



This unique species is of a uniform brownish gray color, 

 with a white eye ring, narrow bar on wing, and outer tail 

 feathers, and with the bases of the primaries rusty colored. 

 It is a ground inhabiting bird, feeding upon insects and 

 berries in shrubbery and thickets. Their song is said to be 

 liquid, melodious and often long continued, equalling 

 that of any other bird. They nest on the ground in hollows 

 under banks or crevices about roots of trees or fallen 

 stumps, making a large, loosely constructed pile of weeds 

 and trash, hollowed and lined with rootlets. The three or four eggs, which are 

 laid in June, are grayish white, spotted with pale brown, chiefly or most abun- 

 lantly about the large end. Size .96 x .70. (Plate of nest, p. 320). 



755. Wood Thrush. Hylocichla mustelina. 



Range. Eastern United States, breeding from North 

 Carolina and Kansas north to northern United States; 

 winters south of our borders. 



This Thrush with his brightly spotted breast is the most 

 handsome of this group of musical birds . They are 

 common in damp woods and thickets, in which places they 

 breed, placing their nests of straw, leaves and grasses in 

 [Greenish blue.] low trees usually between four and ten feet from the 

 ground; their nests are often very rustic, being ornamented by pieces of paper 

 and twigs with dead leaves attached hanging from the sides of the quite bulky 

 structures. During May or June they lay ^three or four greenish blue eggs of 

 about the shade of a Robin's. Size 1.05 x .70. 



756. Wilson Thrush; Veery. Hylocichla fuscescens. 

 Range. Eastern North America, breeding in the northern 



half of its United States range and in the southern British 

 Provinces. 



The Veery is very abundantly distributed in woodland, 

 either moist or dry, and nests on the ground or within a very 

 few inches of it, usually placing its structures of woven bark 

 strips and grasses, in the midst of a clump of sprouts or 

 ferns. The three or four eggs which they lay in May or June 

 are bluish green, much darker than those of the Wood Thrush, [Bluish green.] 

 and nearly the color of those of the Catbird. Size .90 x .65. 



