FAMILY TurdMae. 



have employed a different syllabic form for the rise. Never- 

 theless Mr. Torrey's description is delightfully happy "I 

 stood on the piazza while they sang in full chorus. At 

 least six of them were in tune at once. Wee-o, wee-o, wee-o, 

 tit-ti wee-o, something like this the music ran, with many 

 variations; a most ethereal sound, at the very top of the 

 scale, but faint and sweet; quite in tune also with my mood, 

 for I had just come in from gazing long at the sunset, with 

 Lake Champlain like a sea of gold for perhaps a hundred 

 miles, and a stretch of the St. Lawrence showing far away 

 in the north." And again, "The moment the road entered 

 the ancient forest, the Olive-backs began to make them- 

 selves heard, and, half-way up the mountain path the Gray- 

 cheeks (Bicknell's) took up the strain and carried it on to 

 its heavenly conclusion. A noble processional!"* 



Olive-backed This Thrush is far more retiring than 

 Thrush the Hermit Thrush. His home is prefera- 



Swa nson's j^y w jfc n i n the spruce or deciduous forests 

 Hyiocichla u*tu-* * ne nortn an( * usually at a considerable 

 lata swainsoni altitude. In coloring he nearly resembles 

 L. 7.00 inches the Hermit, but the tail is olive-colored 

 May aoth y^ tne back, and there is a conspicuous 

 ring of buff about the eye. Upper parts brown olive 

 including wings and tail. Under parts white with a 

 suffusion of buff; spots on throat similar to those of the 

 Hermit; round spots on breast at the tips of feathers; 

 sides of the face from the bill backward clear buff with 

 brown streaks. Female similarly marked. Nest built 

 hi low bushes or small trees, and situated about four 

 feet or less from the ground; it is woven of coarse 

 grasses, mosses, leaves, strips of bark, and fine rootlets. 

 This Thrush appears in the middle States later in spring 

 and earlier hi fall than the Hermit; its breeding range is 

 the same as his; it winters in the West Indies and Cen- 

 tral and South America. 



The song of Swainson's Thrush is one of the most 

 charming examples of a harmony in suspension which 

 it is possible to find in all the realm of music. The bird 



* Vide The Footpath Way, pp. 19 and 94. 

 252 



