* VEERY. ' 13 
its composition, old dry leaves form a large part. These are intermingled with bark- 
strips, grass-stems and weed-stalks; moss and fine hemlock twigs are sometimes also 
used. The interior is lined with the same material. The nest is large as compared with 
the size of the bird and not so elegant and pretty as we might expect. It is not at all 
easily found on account of the hidden -spot in which it is built. The female will not 
leave the eggs till almost touched with the foot. A charming picture, this bird with its 
large intelligent eyes, hidden by the fine branches of a huckleberry bush or the over- 
hanging fronds of ferns, with its nest surrounded with moss and delicate forest plants! 
One step more and she leaves her place. Looking in the nest we see four, rarely five, 
eggs, like those of the Hermit, greenish-blue without markings, except in very rare in- 
stances when a few spots appear on the larger end. 
The young are fed with different kinds of insects found on the ground, and these 
also constitute the main diet of the parents. Later in the season various kinds of wood- 
land berries are also eaten. 
The Veery is one of the most exquisite songsters of its forest solitude. It is in truth 
a rival of the Hermit, the Olive-back, and the Wood Thrush. One hardly knows which 
to award the palm. In many respects the Veery’s song reminds one of the Wood Thrush, 
but it is not so loud and flute-like, and seems to be more modulated. All its notes are 
“clear, bell-like, resonant, distinct, yet soft and of indescribable sadness.” The bird sings 
so diligently that it is often heard long after sunset. Hence in some places of New 
England the bird has been called the ‘Nightingale.’’ The sounds ‘‘woit, woit’’ are often 
distinctly heard in the song, and these especially are uttered very powerfully and with 
wonderful harmony.— All our present great ornithologists praise the song of the Veery. 
Prof. R. Ridgway who heard it in the mountains of the West, describes it as really 
inspiring; their song consisting of an inexpressibly delicate metallic utterance of the 
syllables ta-weel’ ah, ta-weel’ ah, twil’ah, twil’ah, accompanied by a fine trill which 
renders it truly seductive. 
The following interesting passage on the Veery’s powers of song occurs in Dr. 
Elliott Coues’ “Birds of the Colorado Valley”: ‘For myself, I rate this bird as one of 
the sweetest of our songsters.... No one of the voices of the woodland is less quaint 
than the Veery’s; no one is truer to its theme, more measured in its cadences, or softer 
and clearer in tone than that of the Veery—rival of the Olive, the Hermit, and the 
Wood Thrush, completing the quartette of silver-tongued cantatrices, who pledge the 
promises of spring-time in choral symphony.’’—Like all the other Thrushes the Veery 
perches on elevated branches when it sings, usually on a tree-top. : 
Its flight and mode of progression over the ground is decidedly thrush-like. In all 
its actions and ways, too, it does not differ from the other small Wood Thrushes. It 
is never particularly gregarious not even in its winter quarters. Migration takes place 
during night, while during the day it looks for food. 
This species is quite as adaptable to cage-life as the others. When first caged, it 
is very wild and unruly, but it soon learns to know its keeper and finally puts aside all 
shyness. All that I have said about the Wood Thrush in this connection holds true of 
the Veery also. The small Thrushes—I refer here to the five species usually known as 
Wood Thrushes (Hylocichla), viz.: the Wood Thrush, Veery, Alice’s Thrush, Hermit, and 
