Olive-backed Thrush at Summer Home. 131 



and again the first of July. Whether they raise two broods 

 or not during the season, I have been unable to determine. A 

 clutch consists of from three to four green-blue eggs, spotted 

 all over with cinnamon-brown. The spots have a tendency 

 to mass themselves around the larger end. The bird lays an 

 egg each day before 10 o'clock in the morning, and begins to 

 incubate by 12 o'clock of the day on which the clutch is com- 

 pleted. Although the eggs are hatched so irregularly, I have 

 never seen the bird incubating before the clutch was com- 

 pleted. I found young in the nest in 1908 on the twelfth and 

 thirteenth days, and in 1913 on the tenth, eleventh and 

 twelfth days from the beginning of the incubation period. 

 The nestlings mature sufficiently to leave the nest in from 

 ten to twelve days.^ 



The summer of 1913 I found two nests of the Olive-backed 

 Thrush on the borders of hay fields, not far from much- 

 traveled High Street, the Bar Harbor road. 



The first nest I moved fifteen feet into the sun, trimmed 

 off the branches so as to get a strong light upon it, and spent 

 nearly all my time at this nest in an effort to secure good pho- 

 tographs of the parent Olive-backed Thrushes and the young. 

 I was careful not to expose the nestlings too long to the hot 

 sun, and always tied fresh branches around the nest on leav- 

 ing the blind. 



The second nest I simply trimmed around so that I could 

 observe the Thrushes clearly while feeding and caring for the 

 little ones. This nest, also, I shielded with branches when 

 not observing in the blind. 



Since, so far as I know, there is no study of the nest life 

 of the Olive-backed Thrush, a detailed account of my exper- 

 iences at this nest may be of interest to my readers. 



June 29, 1913, I came upon the nest of an Olive-backed 

 Thrush containing two eggs. The nest was constructed in 



^ June 2, 1908, found new nest of Olive-backed Thrush. 



June 3 to 6, four eggs ; 12 M., bird incubating. June 18, two 

 young Thrushes ; natal down not dry at 11 A. M. 4 P. M., three 

 birds in the nest. June 19, four birds. 



