2i6 THE OLIVE-BACKED THRUSH. 



During the migrations the bird is seldom heard to utter a sound. Its 

 scolding note is described as being midway between the interrogatory whistle 

 of the Olive-backed and the ill-mannered snarl of the Wilson. Its song, too, 

 requires careful distinction from the former, and hence from, both. 



The breeding habits of the Alice Thrush are as yet imperfectly known, 

 especially in its British American range. Mr. Bradford Torrey first sus- 

 pected its presence in New England during the breeding season, on the strength 

 of a song heard in the White Mountains, and shortly afterward Mr. William 

 Brewster confirmed the record by securing nests in the same locality. 



No. 96. 



OLIVE-BACKED THRUSH. 



A. O. U. No. 758a. HylocicHIa ustulata swainsonii (Cab.). 



Description.' — Adult: Above, olive, or olive-brown, substantially uniform, — 

 a little brighter than in preceding species; below, white; throat (only slightly in 

 center), breast, and sides of head strongly suffused with creamy or ochraceous- 

 buff, unmistakable on lores and eye-ring; cheeks and throat spotted narrowly 

 and breast broadly with dusky olivaceous; sides and flanks lightly washed with 

 brownish gray, sometimes appearing in broad, sector-shaped marks on sides and 

 across breast below the buffy area. Bill brown, lighter at base of lower man- 

 dible; feet light brown. Length 6.50-7.50 (165.1-190.5) ; wing 3.81 (96.8) ; tail 

 2.49 (63.2); bill .50 (12.7). 



Recognition Maries. — Sparrow size; uniform olive-brown above; heavy 

 spotting and buffy wash on breast; sides of head and eye-ring buffy. 



Nesting. — Does not breed in Ohio. Nest, of bark-strips and grasses with a 

 heavy inner mat of leaves, sometimes largely composed of, or covered externally 

 with, moss, lined with rootlets and fine grasses ; placed at moderate heights in 

 bushes or saplings of thickets. Eggs, 3-5, pale greenish olive, with not very 

 distinct spots and blotches of reddish and yellowish brown. Av. size, .91 x .65 

 (23.1 X 16.5), 



General Range.^ — Eastern United States westward to the Upper Columbia 

 River, and casually to the north Pacific Coast. Southward in winter to Cuba, 

 Central America, and western South America; casual in Bermuda. Breeds in 

 the mountainous regions of the Eastern States northerly, and generally north 

 of the United States. 



Range in Oliio. — A common but very unobtrusive migrant. 



ALTHO not less habitually a bird of the undergrowth and thickets 

 than its congeners, when at home in its northern haunts, the Olive-backed 

 Thrush has a curious custom during migrations of remaining aloft in the 



