20 OLIVE-BACKED THRUSH. 
for insect larvae and worms and when thus engaged it acts just like its near congener 
the Robin, hops a little distance over the ground, suddenly comes to a stand, quickly 
raises its tail and drops its wings, listens attentively, leaning its intelligent head slightly 
to one side, picks up a worm here and a beetle there, and again repeats the same action 
till the whole piece of ground has been searched. Nothing escapes its attention, every 
strange object is curiously examined from a respectable distance. Notwithstanding its 
boldness, the Olive-backed Thrush is a suspicious bird that knows well how to keep out 
of danger. I adétually know no bird that looks into the world with such pretty intelli- 
gence as this little Thrush. In spite of its plain plumage there is something aristo- 
cratic, a noble air, in all its ways. ; 
Among the branches of trees and shrubs the Olive-backed Thrush is very agile. 
Its flight is easy and quick. Every one of its movements is entirely thrush-like. It 
appears in south-eastern Texas in the beginning of October and feeds in company with 
other species on the berry-like, balsamic fruit of the Magnolia grandiflora. Many thou- 
sands are annually killed by pot-hunters. This shameful slaughter is carried on notably 
near New Orleans, where this species together with the Wood Thrush and Veery is killed 
in large numbers during fall migration. The Hermit escapes a similar fate only by 
arriving much later. 
Should the weather be pleasant, the Olive-backed Thrush will tarry, but as soon 
as the first cold ‘‘Northers”’ sweep across the Texan prairies it moves on southward. 
It wanders not only as far as southern Mexico but even to Guatemala, Costa Rica, 
and across the Isthmus of Panama into the interior of South America, where many 
seem to pass the winter in Ecuador or even in Peru and Brazil. As a straggler this 
Thrush has also been found on the small North Sea Island of Heligoland. No other of 
our Thrushes is distributed over such an immense territory as this species, for it nests 
northward as far as the Ar&tic regions and spends the winter near or even under the 
equator. Probably many pass the winter in the West Indies and southern Florida. 
During the breeding season we find Swainson’s Thrush from the Atlantic to the 
Yukon and Great Slave Lake. It is also a common summer resident in the Rocky 
Mountains as far west as the East Humboldt Mountains and the upper Columbia. 
In mountainous distriéts it occurs much further south during the breeding season than 
on the plains. In the Catskill Mountains in eastern New York, it is, like Bicknell’s 
Thrush and the Hermit, a tolerably common summer resident. Probably it is found 
much farther south in the Alleghanies. 
“My correspondent, Mr. T. M. Trippe,”’ says Dr. Elliott Coues*, “found the bird in 
Colorado in May and September; and on one occasion in October, when the snow lay 
a foot deep on the ground, he observed it in company with various other species which 
had gathered about the Hot Sulphur Springs, in the Middlé Park, apparently attracted 
by the warmth of the tepid pools.” ‘In the vicinity of Denver,” says Mr. H. W. Hen- 
shaw, “this species makes its appearance about the 10th of May; and by the 17th the 
thickets and partially open ground in swampy localities were fairly swarming with 
these birds. They were perfectly silent, and busied themselves after the usual manner of 
the family in scratching and seeking among the leaves for food. The males preceded 
* “Birds of the Colorado Valley,” p. 37. 
