Ornithology of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. 305 
and the eggs were spotted. "The one found was on the 
ground, and the eggs without sign of spot. His description 
I could not reject; his character for accuracy and for truth- 
fulness would not allow it. It seems therefore to indicate 
specifie differences which the result has confirmed. "The 
nest and eggs he described belonged undoubtedly to the fox- 
colored species; those found in Roxbury to its olive-backed 
congener. Still it was possible he might have been mistaken, 
and new evidences were required to confirm his descriptions. 
"These I was so fortunate as to obtain this summer. On the 
15th of June, some of the boys enlisted in my service found 
a pair of the fox-colored birds building a nest on Duck 
Island. We watched them carefully until the morning of 
the 18th, when the time for my departure had come, and to 
my great satisfaction, one egg was found; it corresponded 
exactly with the description of Wilson. A few days after- 
wards, in Halifax, I mentioned these facts to a naturalist 
there, Andrew Downes, and found that he was perfectly well 
aware of the specific differences of these birds. He has 
procured and sent me the eggs of each species. It has con- 
tributed, no doubt, to the confounding together of these distinct 
species, that both have about the same geographical distribu- 
tion and similar habits. They are both northern species, 
only Occasionally found south of the extreme northern limits 
of the United States in breeding season, but each in a few in- 
stances having been observed to deviate from this general rule. 
do not propose here to go into the particulars of the 
specific differences. Yet it may be well to give a few of 
the more prominent distinctions. The olive-shaded bird is 
larger and heavier, and builds on the ground ; its eggs are larger, 
uniform in color, which closely resembles that of the eggs of 
Wilson's Thrush, but much more nearly spherical, and unspot- 
ted. The fox-colored bird is less heavy in its make, builds on 
trees a very peculiar nest, recognizable at once, whether found 
In Georgia or Nova Scotia ; itsegg is lighter, much more ob- 
long ; its ground color less deep, and beautifully spotted with 
JOURNAL, B, S, N. H. 40 APRIL, 41852. 
