282 NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



It is cliaracterized hy onovj,'y and power, ratlior tluin variety or sweetness, yet 

 it is not uiipleiising. Aiuhibou calls it a "simple lay," and ai-ain " a short 

 succession of simple notes," — expressions that would give one who had never 

 heiird its song an altogether incorrect idea of its true character Wilson is 

 still more in error wlicu he states that this bird has no song, but an (niergetic 

 twitter, when, in fact, it has two very distinct songs, each in its way renmrk- 

 able. Nuttall describes its song as " a simple, long, reiterated note, rising 

 from low to high, and shrill" ; liichardson sjjeaks of it as "a loud, clear, anil 

 remarkably pleasing ditty"; and Mr. Allen calls it " a loud, echoing song, 

 heard everywhere in the deep woods." In reference to the songs of this bird,' 

 and the injustice that has been done by writers to this ancrother species 

 of our birds, Mr. Boardman of St. Stephen has written me the iollowing just 

 observations. 



" Many of our common Warblers, Thrushes, and other birds, have rare songs 

 they reserve for some extra oc( isions, and many of our connnon birds do not 

 get credit for half their real j^wer of song. Once last sjn'ing, as I was watch- 

 ing for some birds, I heard a new and veiy pretty warble, sonietiiing like 

 the trill of a AVinter Wren, and found diat it came from our common slate- 

 colored Snowbii'd (Jiiiico hi/emalis), a bird that I see every day that 1 go 

 to the woods, and yet these notes I had never heard before. It is the same 

 with the Golden-crowned Thrush. Wlien it gets into the top of a tall tree, 

 its strain is so rare and beautiful that but few know it as from that bird. 

 The same is true of the AVatcr Thrush, and also of both Tardus jxdlnsi 

 and Turdus siraiiiKoiii." 



The Oven-Uird always nests on the ground, and generally constructs nests 

 with arched or domed roofs, with an entrance on one side, like the mouth of 

 an oven, and hence its common name. This arched covering is not, however, 

 universal. For a site this sjiecies usually selects tlie wooded slope of a hill, 

 and the nests are usually sunk in the ground. When placed under the 

 shelter of a projecting root, or in a thick clump of bushes, the nest has no 

 other cover than a few loose leaves resting on, but forming no part of it. 



A nest from IJacine, AVis., olitiiincd by Dr. Hoy, is a fine typical specimen 

 of the domed nests of this species. The roof is very perfect, and the whole 

 I)resents the appear.'.nce of two shallow nests tinited at the rim, and leaving 

 only a small o])ening at one side. Tiiis nest M-as five inches in diameter 

 from front to back, si.x inches from side to side, and four inches high. The 

 opening Avas two and a quarter inches wide, one and three (luartcrs high. 

 Tiie cavity was two inches deej), below the brim. At the entrance the roof 

 recedes about an inch, obviously to allow of a freer entrance and exit from 

 the nest. Externally this nest is made of wood, mosses, lichens, and dry 

 leaves, with a few stems and broken i'raginents of plants. The entrance is 

 strongly built of stout twigs, and its ujipei' ])ortion is com])osed of a strong 

 framework of fine twigs, roots, stems, mosses, dry i)lants, etc., all firmly 

 interwoven, and lined with finer materials of tlie same. 



