HABITS OF THE VEERY 41 



• 

 rado Basin, no one appears to have found it in New Mexico or 



Arizona. It must consequently take a somewhat circuitous 

 route in gaining its winter home in Central America, unless 

 perchance it migrates at a considerable elevation along the 

 mountain-chains. The latter supposition seems more probable, 

 since Professor Sumichrast has observed it in Orizaba in Mexico. 

 Its general northward dispersion appears to be more restricted 

 than that of either the Hermit or the Olive-backed Thrush, 

 being perhaps coincident with the limit of arboreal vegetation. 

 In Cuba, it is one of the commoner species of the genus. A few 

 linger through the winter in our Gulf States, but the majority 

 leave our shores for the more genial climate of subtropical 

 America, and proceed as far as Panama — in exceptional cases 

 still farther, as in the instance noted by A. von Pelzeln, of an 

 occurrence at San Vicente, Brazil, in December. There is even 

 a record of the appearance of the bird in Europe ; but I under- 

 stand that this is open to doubt. It will be seen that its dis- 

 tribution is much like that of the Hermit and the Olive-backed, 

 yet on the whole somewhat restricted, though less so than that 

 of the Wood Thrush. Its breeding-range, similarly, is more 

 southerly, approximating to that of the Wood Thrush ; it includes 

 the Northern, Eastern, and some of the Middle States, and an 

 adjoining belt of country in British America; while in the 

 Eocky Mountains it stretclies southward to the confines of New 

 Mexico and Arizona. 



The Veery's mating and nest building season, when the bird 

 is in full song, is the genial month of May, in most parts of the 

 United States; and two broods may be reared under propitious 

 surroundings. But further northward, where alone have I my- 

 self found the bird in its home, and heard its seductive epitha- 

 lamium, the shorter span of the summer season suffices but for 

 a single brood. The yearly crisis of the bird's life is delayed 

 till June, and the young are not seen abroad till the latter part 

 of that month, if indeed before July. The heavy growth of 

 timber that fringes the streams includes many nooks and dells, 

 and broken ravines overgrown with thick shrubbery, from out 

 the masses of which the tall trees tower, as if stretching forth 

 their strong arms in kindly caressing of the humbler and 

 weaker vegetation, .their offspring. In such safe retreats, 

 where the sombre shade is brightened here and there with stray 

 beams of sunlight, in the warmth of which myriads of insects 

 bathe their wings and flutter away their little span of life. 



