THRUSHES. 33 



rather distinct habits and notes. Let the young student, who 

 wishes to distinguish several closely allied species, mark the 

 points of difference, and not the similar characteristics of 

 each, and let him avoid employing only one means of distinc- 

 tion, such as coloration. 



D. TJSTULATUS swAiNSONii. Swainson's Thrush. Olive- 

 backed Thrush. " Swamp Robin " ? A rather rare migrant 

 through Massachusetts. * 



a. 1-1^ inches long. Above, soft, dusky olive (occa- 

 sionally with a reddish brown tinge). Sides of the head buff, 

 and breast strongly tinged with the same color. The latter 

 and the sides of the throat, thickly spotted with dusky. Eye- 

 ring buff. 



b. The nest is a rather bulky structure, usually composed 

 of twigs, mosses, grasses, leaves, etc., with no mud, and some- 

 times lined with the coal-black hairs of a certain moss. It is 

 placed in a spruce, low tree, or perhaps a bush, from three to 

 ten feet above the ground. It is often built beside a road or 

 wood-path. The first set, of three or four eggs, is laid in the 

 first or perhaps more often the second week of Jime ; the 

 second set is laid four or five weeks later. The eggs are much 

 like those of the Scarlet Tanager, being about .95 X .70 of an 

 inch, and light blue olive-tinged, either finely marked with 

 indistinct brown, or coarsely spotted (with a few fine mark- 

 ings beside), chiefly at the great end, with obscure lilac and 

 two shades of brown. 



c. Though the Swainson's Thrushes are by no means very 

 common migrants through eastern Massachusetts, yet an 

 ornithologist at aU active can hardly fail to meet with them 

 in spring. Groves of tall hemlocks are among the places, 

 where, about the middle of May, I have seen these birds, not 

 on the ground, but among the branches of the trees, from 

 which they occasionally dart into the air and catch insects 



* Swainson's Thrush is an abundant where in southern New England is 



summer resident of most of the spraoe known only as a late spring and early 



forests of northern New England. It autumn migrant. It occurs very regu- 



also breeds very commonly on Mt. Gray- larly about Boston, and often in consid- 



loek in western Massachusetts, but ebe- erable numbers. — W. B . 



