Brown, Olive or Grayish B'own, and Brown and Gray Sparrowy Birds 



English poets have lavished upon the nightingale ? Undoubtedly 

 because it lifts up its heavenly voice in the solitude of the forest, 

 whereas the nightingales, singing in loud choruses in the moon- 

 light under the poet's very window, cannot but impress his 

 waking though .s and even his dreams with their melody. 



Since the severe storm and cold in the Gulf States a few win- 

 ters .".go. where vast numbers of hermit thrushes died from cold 

 and starvation, this bird has been vc." ire in haunts where it 

 used to be abundant. The other thru- . «; escap^a because they 

 SDend the winter farther south. 



Alice's Thrush 



(Turdus alicice) Thrush family 



Called also: GRAY-CHEEKED THRUSH 



Length — 7, 15 to 8 inches. About the size of the bluebird. 



Male and Female — Upper parts uniform olive-brown. Eye-ring 

 whitish. Cheeks gray; sides dull grayish white. Sides of 

 the throat and breast pale cream-buff, speckled with arrow- 

 shaped points on throat and with half-round dark-brown 

 marks below. 



Range — North America, from Labrador and Alaska to Central 

 America. 



Migrations — Late April or May. October. Chiefly seen in migra- 

 tions, except at northern parts of its range. 



One looks for a prettier bird than this least attractive of all 

 the thrushes in one that bears such a suggestive name. Like the 

 olive-backed thrush, from which it is almost impossible io tell it 

 when both are alive and hopping about the shrubbery, its plu- 

 mage above is a dull olive-brown that is more protective than 

 pleasing. 



Just as Wilson hopelessly confused the olive-backed thrush 

 with the hermit, so has Alice's thrush been confounded by later 

 writers with the olive-backed, from which it differs chiefly in 

 being a trifle larger, in having gray cheeks instead of buff, and in 

 possessing a few faint streaks on the throat. Where it goes to 

 make a home for its greenish-blue speckled eggs in some low 

 bush at the northern end of its range, it bursts into song, but 

 except in the nesting grounds its voice is never heard. Mr. 



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