THE GRAY-CHEEKED THRUSH. 215 



Altho reported commonly in the northern portion in summer, I have 

 no positive information of a nest's having been found in Ohio. In fact this 

 species is one of the inexcusably neglected birds of the state. 



No. 95. 



GRAY-CHEEKED THRUSH. 



A. O. U. No. 757. Hylocichia aliciae (Baird). 



Synonym. — Auce's Thrush. 



Description. — Adult: Above, uniform dull olive-brown; below, white, on 

 the breast and sides of throat tinged with pinkish buff, and further marked by 

 broad, sector-shaped spots of blackish; the sides and sometimes lower breast 

 washed with dusky gray; lores and region about angle of commissure distinctly 

 gray; remaining space oh side of head gray, mingled with olive-brown. Bill 

 dark brown, somewhat lighter below; feet brown. Length 7.00-8.00 (177.8- 

 203.2) ; av. of six Columbus specimens; wing 4.05 (102.9) ! ^^^1 2.56 (65.) ; bill 

 •SO (12.7). 



Recognition Marks. — Sparrow to Chewink size; pallid cheeks afford only 

 positive diagnostic mark; darker above and more heavily marked on breast than 

 H. fuscescens. 



Nesting. — Does not breed in Ohio. Nest, of bark-strips, leaves, grasses, 

 etc., lined with fine grasses; on branches of low trees or on bushes, two to eight 

 feet from ground. Bggs, 4, greenish blue, faintly spotted with reddish or yel- 

 lowish brown. Av. size, .91 x .70 (23.1 x 17.8). 



General Range. — Eastern North America west to the Plains, Alaska and 

 northern Siberia ; north to the Arctic Coast ; south in winter to Costa Rica. Breeds 

 chiefly north of the United States. 



Range in Oliio. — Not very common spring and fall migrant. 



ALL Thrushes look alike to the layman, and it is not perhaps to be 

 wondered at that this species, altho by no means rare, is not known to above 

 a dozen observers in the state. Alice's Thrush has the same modest ways 

 and semi-terrestrial habits which characterize the other members of the 

 genus, and while with us does little to distinguish itself from them. Like 

 the others it has a fashion of slipping along quietly through the under- 

 growth, and may nqt be observed until driven, all unconsciously perhaps, 

 to its last ditch, whereupon it flutters up into view on a post of the boundary 

 fence, or hurtles back wildly over the observer's head. It is, perhaps, a little 

 more deliberate in movement than the Olive-backed Thrush, with which it 

 is most likely to be confounded. 



