BIRDS OF KANSAS. 649 



heard; but they are very shy, and, at the first alarm, dive into 

 the dense bushes for shelter. As soon as the breeding season 

 is over they become less retiring, and frequent the vicinity of 

 villages and more open spots, where many are killed by the na- 

 tive boys, armed with their bows and arrows. Their skins are 

 removed and hung in rows or bunches to dry in the smoky huts, 

 and are preserved as trophies of the young hunters' prowess. 

 In* the winter festivals, when the older hunters bring out the 

 trophies of their skill, the boys proudly display the skins of 

 these Thrushes and hang them alongside. 



' k On the seacoast every alder patch has a pair or more of 

 these birds, and its presence at Sitka and Kadiak is attested by 

 numerous specimens in the National Museum Collection. Dall 

 records a nest obtained from an elevation of about six feet in a 

 small alder. This nest was made of hair, lined with scraps of 

 deer hair, feathers, and a little moss. A nest, obtained by me 

 near St. Michael's, on the first of June, is an extremely small, 

 loose structure, formed by lining a small depression at the base 

 of a shrub in the midst of an alder thicket with fine, soft grass 

 leaves. The material of the nest is uniform throughout, and in 

 this particular partly bears out Dr. Brewer's statement in the 

 'History of North American Birds,' which is: 'The nests (of 

 alicice) are also quite different in their appearance and style of 

 structure. The Hypnum mosses, so marked a feature in the 

 nests of T. swainsonii, as also in those of T. ustulatus, are 

 wholly wanting in those of T. alicice.' This statement is not 

 confirmed, however, by the examination of other nests. A sec- 

 ond example, obtained at St. Michael's, on June 20th, was com- 

 posed mainly of these mosses mixed with a small amount of 

 coarse grass. This nest was placed upon the branching base of 

 a small alder, only a few inches from the ground. The nest 

 first mentioned measured three and a half inches across the top 

 by two inches deep, and the eggs which it contained measure 

 respectively: . 93x.62, . 90x.64 and .93x.6S. These eggs are 

 blue, with a varying amount of reddish brown specking, which 

 is most abundant at the larger end. In two specimens of this 

 set the spots are thinly scattered over the shell, while in the 



