The Wood Thrush 



69 



The Wood Thrush is not among the early feathered arrivals in spring. In 

 fact, we do not see it until the new leaves are well started, and warm weather 



has advanced sufficiently to render improbable the recurrence 

 In Spring of One of those backward blasts of winter which so often occur 



in early spring. It is during the last ten days of April that we 

 usually find the first Wood Thrush in the latitude of New York. Within a few 

 days after his song is heard ringing through the woodlands, practically all the 

 Wood Thrush delegation arrives. Love-making shortly begins, and full com])le- 

 ments of eggs may be looked for within three weeks. 



NEST AND EGGS OF WOOD THRUSH IN CEDAR TREE, DEMAREST, N. J. 

 Photographed by B. S. Bowdish 



The building of a nest to suit the taste of a pair of Wood Thrushes involves 

 no small amount of labor. Although the birds feed on the ground, and spend 



much of their time running or hopping about in the grass or 

 The Nest among the fallen leaves, they do not regard this as a good place 



for their eggs and young. Up in a small tree from six to ten feet 

 above the earth they choose their nesting-site. In the fork of an upright limb, 

 or where the main stem of a sapling divides, is looked upon as a choice loca- 

 tion. Here large dead leaves, and sometimes pieces of paper, are brought, and 

 these, held together with sticks and twigs, form the bottom and sides of the 



