OLIVE-BACKED THEUSH 359 



home will meet your friendly advances with con- 

 fidence, answering your whistle with its own 

 sweet wavering whee-u, till you feel that the 

 woods hold gentle friends to whom you will 

 gladly return. Hold a stiff beech-leaf at right 

 angles to your lips, and whistle softly a series of 

 descending whee-u, whee-u, whee-whee-u's, and you 

 will get a little of the reed-like quality and phras- 

 ing of the Veery's song. To me it has all the 

 restfulness of the sunny beech woods in summer, 

 for it is one of my best-loved home-birds. 



Olive-backed Thrush : Turdus ustulatus swainsonii. 

 (See Fig. 220, 4, p. 361.) 



Upper parts uniformly olive ; throat buff y ; breast lightly spot- 

 ted. Length, about 7 inches. 



GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION. Breeds from Manitoba, northern 

 New England, and New Brunswick to Alaska and Labrador, 

 and southward along the Alleghanies to Pennsylvania ; win- 

 ters in the tropics. 



This northern Thrush may be heard singing on 

 its spring migration, and its song is said to be 

 forcibly delivered and ringing. The call note is 

 puk. 



