282 NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



It is ('liaracterized l)y onor^'V and power, rather tlian variety or sweetness, yet 

 it is not unpleasing. Aiuliibon calls it a " simple lay," and aijjain " a short 

 succession of simple notes," — expressions that would give one who had never 

 heard its son*' an altogether incorrect idea of its true character. Wilson is 

 still more in error when he states that this hird has no son«% hut an ener'Ttic 

 twitter, wlien, in fact, it has two very distinct songs, each in its way reniark- 

 al>le. Xuttall describes its song as " a sim])le, long, reiterated note, rising 

 from low to high, and shrill" ; Kichardson speaks of it as "a loud, clear, and 

 remarkably pleasing ditty " ; and Mr. x\llen calls it " a loud, echoing song, 

 heard everywhere in the deep woods." In reference to the songs of this bird, 

 and the injustice that has been done l)y writers to this and other species 

 of our birds, ^Ir. Boardman of St. Stephen has written me the following just 

 observations. 



" ^lany of our common "Warblers, Thrushes, and other birds, have rare songs 

 they reserve for some extra occasions, and many of our common birds do not 

 get credit for half their real 2)ower of song. Once last sjning, as I was watch- 

 ing for some birds, I heard a new and very pretty warble, sf>metliing like 

 the trill of a Winter Wren, and found that it came from our common slate- 

 colored Snowbird {Junvo JiijcmaUs), a bird tliat I see every day that I go 

 to the woods, and vet these notes I had never heard before. It is the same 

 with the Golden-crowned Thrush. When it gets into the top of a tall tree, 

 its strain is so rare and lieautiful that but few know it as from that l)ird. 

 The same is true of the Water Thrush, and also of both Tardus j^n/lasi 

 and Turd us swainsoni'' 



The Oven-r)ird always nests on the ground, and generally constructs nests 

 with arched or domed roofs, with an entrance on one side, like the nuaith of 

 an oven, and hence its connnon name. This arched covering is not, however, 

 universal. For a site this species usually selects the wooded slope of a hill, 

 and the nests are usually sunk in the ground. When placed under the 

 shelter of a projecting root, or in a thick clump of bushes, the nest has no 

 other cover than a few loose leaves resting on, but forming no part of it. 



A nest from liacine. Wis., obtained by Dr. Hoy, is a fine typical specimen 

 of the domed nests of this species. The roof is very perfect, and the whole 

 l)resents the appearance of two shallow nests united at the rim, and leaving 

 only a small o]iening at one side. This nest was five inches in diameter 

 from front to back, six inches from side to side, and four inches high. The 

 opening was two and a quarter inches wide, one and three (juarters high. 

 The cavity was two inches deep, below the brim. At the entrance the roof 

 recedes about an inch, obviously to allow of a freer entrance and exit from 

 the nest. Externally this nest is made of wood, mosses, lichens, and dry 

 leaves, with a few stems and broken fragments of plants. The entrance is 

 strongly built of stout twigs, and its upper ])ortion is composed of a strong 

 framework of fine twigs, roots, stems, mosses, dry plants, etc., all firmly 

 interwoven, and lined with liner materials of the same. 



