678 The Sparrow-like Birds 



letters can tell of its peculiar quality; it has neither break nor pause, and seems 

 to emanate from no one place. If you can imagine the syllables vee-r-r-hu re- 

 peated eight or nine times around a series of intertwining circles, the description 

 might enable you to recognize the Veery's song." The nest ; which is without 

 mud in its construction, is placed on or near the ground, and the eggs resemble 

 those of the Wood Thrush. 



Olive-backed Thrush. Known to the residents of eastern United States 

 mainly as a migrant, the charming little Olive-backed Thrush (H. ustulata 

 swainsonii) slips through in silent little parties to its summer home in the conif- 

 erous forests of the north, though a few stop to breed in the higher Alleghanies and 

 the mountains of New England ; it spends the winter in Cuba, Central America, 

 and northern South America. During its brief sojourn in the south it frequents 

 especially the borders of clearings, where it is wont to select some point of van- 

 tage, preferably a dead tree-top, from which it pours forth its ringing song. 

 The nest is placed in a low tree and but four or five feet from the ground; the 

 eggs, usually three or four, are greenish blue spotted with brownish. 



Hermit Thrush. Sharing the northern summer home with the last is the 

 prince of all these Thrushes, the exquisite Hermit (H. guttata pallasii), so named 

 from its pronounced preference for the quiet depths of the forest. Coming early 

 in spring, the earliest of the Thrushes, they tarry latest in the fall, frequent- 

 ing while en route the low, damp, bushy edges of woods, the dense shrubbery 

 along streams, and occasionally they may enter gardens about houses. It spends 

 some time on the ground, but is usually to be seen flitting from branch to branch. 

 Of its song Coues says: "The weird associations of the spot where the Hermit 

 triumphs, the mystery inseparable from the voice of an unseen musician, con- 

 spire to heighten the effect of the sweet, silvery, bell-like notes, which, begin- 

 ning soft, low, and tinkling, rise higher and higher, to end abruptly with a clear, 

 ringing intonation." The nest of grass, leaves, and moss is placed on the ground, 

 and the eggs are the usual greenish blue. The Hermit Thrush may be known 

 from the others by its olive-brown upper parts and pale rufous tail, as also its 

 near relatives, the Alaska, Dwarf, and Audubon's Hermit Thrushes (H. guttata, 

 H. g. nana, and H. g. auduboni), which together range quite across the continent. 



Rock Thrushes. With the Rock Thrushes of the Old World, a small group 

 of two genera and a dozen species, we may close our account of this subfamily. 

 As the name implies, they are rock-haunting birds, frequenting open, rocky wastes, 

 usually solitary in their habits, and distinguished by a stout, straight bill, rather 

 short wings and tail, and a plumage in which there is much blue, chestnut, or 

 black, especially below. The common Rock Thrush (Monticola saxatilis] is 

 found in summer in central and southern Europe, east to central Africa, and 

 north to southern Siberia, wintering in Africa and India. It is a shy, wary bird, 

 frequenting barren, rocky localities, old ruins, and walled gardens, where it 

 may be seen constantly vibrating its tail after the manner of the Redstart, and 

 giving voice to its sweet and varied song. If taken from the nest when young 

 and reared in confinement, it becomes an attractive cage bird and as such is 

 much esteemed. The rather loosely constructed nest is sometimes placed in a 



