20 SOME CANADIAN BIRDS. 



songs can bo determined very readily. Of the three the olive- 

 backed 1ki8 the best voice — the richest and most flute-like — but his 

 song is inferior. It is shorter and lacks variety, and is of more 

 limited com})a8s than that of either of his congeners, and while 

 lacking the spirit of the veery's, is less hymn-like than the hermit's. 



Besides their songs most birds have distinctive call notes and 

 cries of alarm, which vary so much that an expert can distinguish 

 the species to which a bird belongs by any note it may utter. 

 The alarm note of the olive-backed thrush, which is heard most 

 frequently when the nest is in danger, sounds something like quit, 

 spoken abruptly though in liquid tone. The bird also utters at 

 times a feeble cheep and a metallic chick. 



The colors of this thrush are olive-tinted russet on the upper 

 parts, silver- white on the belly, and a creamy tint, spotted with 

 olive on the breast. In the autumn the olive-tint of the upper 

 parts is less distinct and the under parts are tinged with buff. 



These birds are not common in Ontario and Quebec, appearing 

 only in small companies, and occurring in Ontario during the migra- 

 tions only. In the Maritime Provinces they are fairly common as 

 summer residents. The area of their distribution extends from Great 

 Slave Lake to the tropics. 



MEADOW LARK. 



The simple though sweet and plaintive lay of this songster is 

 familiar to the dwellers in the southern peninsula of Ontario, but 

 nowhere else in Canada is the bird plentiful excepting in the ' 

 vicinity of Montreal. In the Maritime Provinces the meadow lark 

 is a stranger. 



The song is one of the simplest of bird efforts and thus appears 

 in strong contrast with the song of a near relative that is found on 

 the Manitoba plains — a bird that is credited with one of the 

 grandest and most inspiring songs of which America can boast. 

 The western bird mounts in the air and sings while on the 

 wing in true lark habit, but our bird seems to have lost 

 the habit of singing in the air, or never to have gained the 



