218 ORNITHOLOGY AND OOLOGY. 



minate; tarsi about as long as the skull, considerably exceeding the middle toe; 

 under tail coverts reaching within about half an inch of the end of the tail ; color 

 above olivaceous; beneath whitish, thickly streaked on the breast and sides: wings 

 and tail immaculate. 



SEIURUS AUROCAPILLUS. Swainsm. 

 The Oven-bird; Golden-crowned Thrush. 



Motadlla aurocapilla, Linnaeus. Syst. Nat., I. (1766) 334. Gm., I. (1788) 982. 

 Turdus aurocapillus, Wilson. Am. Orn., II. (1810) 88. Aud. Orn. Biog., II. 

 (1834)253; V. (1839)447. 



Turdus (Seiurus) aurocapillus, Nuttall. Man., I. (1832) 355. 



DESCRIPTION. 



Above uniform olive-green, with a tinge of yellow; crown with two narrow 

 streaks of black from the bill, enclosing a median and much broader one of brownish- 

 orange; beneath white; the breast, sides of the body, and a maxillary line streaked 

 with black. The female, and young of the year, are not appreciably different. 



Length, six inches; wing, three inches; tail, two and forty one-hundredths 

 inches. 



This beautiful and well-known bird is a common summer 

 inhabitant of New England, breeding abundantly in all the 

 States. It arrives from the South about the last week in 

 April or first in May, and soon commences building. The 

 birds are not often paired on their arrival, and many are 

 the little quarrels and battles that occur between two or 

 three males for the possession of one of the opposite sex. 

 The birds both work diligently in the construction of the 

 nest, which is a model of neatness and ingenuity. It is 

 built on the ground in the woods, usually in a dry situation. 

 The materials used are dry leaves and grasses : these are 

 arranged compactly together, and built over at the top, the 

 entrance being on the side, like an old-fashioned oven ; 

 hence the familiar name of the " Oven-bird." The nest is 

 usually placed in a slight hollow in the earth, scratched by 

 the birds, and is lined with soft grasses and hairs. The 

 eggs are from three to five in number, usually four. They 

 are of a delicate creamy-white color, and spotted irregularly 

 with different shades of reddish-brown ; and some specimens 

 have a number of spots of obscure lilac-color. The mark- 



