ii8 The Ottawa Naturaitst. [September 



having a distinct yellowish ring close about the eye. It 

 can be separated from the hermit by the colour of the 

 tail, and from the Wilson by the tint of the back and by 

 the eye ring. It is rather a rare bird in summer, breeding near 

 here as far as known only in the Laurentian country to the north 

 (it has been heard near Meach's Lake) but it maybe quite com- 

 mon in the migrating flocks, but its quiet habits and rather 

 indistinct characteristics tend to make it inconspicuous. It 

 arrives in Ottawa about the third week of April. Its nest 

 will be found in a tree or bush, six or eight feet from the 

 ground, composed of rootlets leaves and moss and containing 

 four to five eggs of a greenish blue colour, freckled with brown 

 in which latter feature the eggs are distinct from those of the 

 other thrushes on our list. — F. A. SAUNDERS, 



Wilson's Thrush, Turdus fuscescens — The tawny thrush 

 or veery, as he is variously named, is nearly of the size of a blue- 

 bird, of a uniform tawny colour above, including the tail, and white 

 below, olive shaded on sides, with a strong fulvous tint on the 

 'breast ; and sides of neck spotted with small dusky spots. This 

 is perhaps our commonest thrush, arriving in our woods and 

 swamps about the third week of /April, and breeding 

 in nearly all favourable localities about Ottawa. Its nest 

 is on or near the ground and is composed of grass, leaves 

 and rootlets, rather loosely put together, without the mud 

 or clay that the wood-thrush and the robin use. The eggs are 

 four or five in number and of a greenish blue colour, unspotted. 

 The veery is readily distinguished from the hermit by the colour 

 of the tail and by the small size o«f the spots on the breast, and 

 from the wood-thrush by its smaller size, by the fulvous tint on 

 the breast, and again by the snots It is the thrush which one 

 usually finds in summer in moist woods, and such swamps as 

 the one between St. Louis Dam and the Rideau resound in the 

 June evenings with its splendid song. It has a very characteristic 



