120 The Wilson Bulletin — No. 84. 



ets that skirt pastures, fields, and much traveled thorough- 

 fares ; the following season the Olive-backed is the more con- 

 spicuous in numbers, and locates his nest in the same spots, 

 save that the Hermit constructs his nest under the tree, and 

 the Olive-backed places his nest in the tree. At times the 

 Olive-backed is so common in the vicinity of dwellings that 

 T have heard his vigorous melody from the post ofifice corner. 



Though the Hermit and the Veery are more glorious song- 

 sters than the Olive-backed Thrush, I doubt if either of them 

 can compete with the latter in intelligence and vigor. His 

 call notes wJut! and whit-yer! and his song are distinctive, 

 but he has a way of slipping into the underbrush when dis- 

 turbed, that renders it difficult to trace his notes to their 

 source. For this reason the Olive-backed Thrush has been 

 confused with nearly all the other Thrushes. 



The spring of 1913 brought large numbers of Olive-backed 

 Thrushes to our locality; they nested in the narrow strips of 

 virgin growth just outside the hay fields, quite as commonly 

 as in the far away woodlands. Sitting in an umbrella blind 

 before the nests of two pairs of Olive-backed Thrushes, the 

 stillness was broken every few moments by passing automo- 

 biles. While the young Thrushes are in the nest, the male 

 bird sings nearly all the time. I could but wonder why they 

 chose such noisy spots in which to give their kindergarten ex- 

 ercises, when a vast woodland stretched away before them. 



The nest of the Olive-backed is a bulky, statant, increment 

 structure, located in the tree much after the fashion of the 

 Robin's nest. Its rough exterior gives it a greater appear- 

 ance of size than it really possesses. Because the nests are 

 so large and so conspicuously placed, very many of them are 

 pillaged by Crows, squirrels and other wild animals, and the 

 household cat destroys vast numbers of the immature birds. 

 Most of the nests that have come under my observation, have 

 been found anywhere from one to ten feet above the ground, 

 in firs and spruces. One was constructed in a hemlock, and 

 another in a gray birch. 



The birds build their interesting domiciles the first of June 



