34 LAND-BIRDS. 



in the manner of Flycatchers. I have also met them in swampy 

 roads, or even in orchards, and have observed them on the 

 ground, often moving quite rapidly, or pausing in a rather 

 erect attitude. Probably it is partly because of their usual 

 shyness while migrating, partly because they often frequent 

 the higher branches, and partly because two of their ordinary 

 notes are very much like those of the Snow-birds (of whom a 

 few linger in May), that they are often considered rarer than 

 they are. Before June all the Olive-backed Thrushes pass 

 beyond the limits of this State, and many spend the summer 

 in northern Vermont or New Hampshire, and in Maine, some 

 of them revisiting the neighborhood of Boston about the first 

 of October, when the wonderful instinct of migration prompts 

 them to return to Florida, or still further to the south. In 

 Bethlehem, among the "White Mountains, I have studied the 

 habits of these birds, who there inhabit various kinds of 

 woodland, particularly those which have swamps or brooks in 

 them, but keep nearer the ground, and exhibit much less shy- 

 ness in those wild woods than they habitually do when travel- 

 ing. 



In autumn, however, they are much less shy and active than 

 they are in spring ; and during the fall migrations, they may 

 be found in woods and copses. There they pick up food from 

 the ground and the lower branches of bushes or trees, since at 

 that season there are few winged insects, of a size acceptable 

 to them, to be caught in the air, and since before the severer 

 frosts of autumn have come, and before the Hermit Thrushes 

 are abundant, a large supply of food suitable to them can 

 be found among the dead leaves, many of which have then 

 already fallen. 



To resume the remarks just interrupted : In the woods of 

 the White Mountains, they sing almost throughout the sum- 

 mer, and often throughout the day, for the old forests of New 

 Hampshire are always cool and shady. They more often sing, 

 however, in the early morning or at sunset, as does the Wood 

 Thrush, and, like that bird, they frequently perch on a high 

 and prominent bough when about to sing. They usually stay 

 on their nests rather more boldly than the Hermit Thrushes 



