522 Birds of Colorado 
Distribution.—Breeding in the Rocky Mountains from eastern Briti: 
Columbia to Lower California and New Mexico, south in winter throu; 
Mexico to Guatemala ; a few wintering in western Texas. 
The Rocky-Mountain Thrush is certainly the most abundant memb 
of its genus in Colorado. It is a summer resident, breeding througho: 
the mountains, from about 8,000 feet to 11,000 feet and nearly up - 
timber line ; it occurs on migration out on the plains, as far as Limc 
(Aiken coll., May 21st), and Fort Lyon (May 6th to 9th, Thorne), ax 
has been met with breeding as low as 6,500 feet on Groove Cree 
Mesa co., by Rockwell. 
Other breeding records are: Boulder co., 5,800 to 10,000 feet (Gale 
above Idaho Springs, 11,000 feet to 13,000 feet (Trippe), Breckenridg 
Carter (Cooke), slopes of Grays and Pikes Peaks (Keyser), Hancoc 
11,000 feet (Stone), slopes of Mount Baldy, near Fort Garland (He 
shaw), San Juan co. (Drew), La Plata co., at 10,000 feet (Gilman) 
On migration it arrives early in May—Pueblo, May 6th (Lowe 
and departs in October—Pueblo, October 5th, 6th and 13th (Beckham 
Habits.—The favourite haunts of the Rocky-Mounta: 
Thrush are deep and sheltered cafions and dark spru 
forest, where the sun hardly shines; here it is to be foun 
sometimes alone, sometimes several together, enlivenir 
the gloomy solitudes with its exquisite notes both durir 
the middle of the day and also evening and momin 
It is very shy and retiring, and even when located | 
its note is most difficult to catch a glimpse of. 
Gale’s notes contain the record of a large number 
nests found by him at various elevations, from abo 
6,000 to 11,000 feet ; they were placed almost exclusive 
on spruce trees from about three to ten feet from tl 
ground, generally in a spot near a mountain stream » 
close to a spring. 
Nests were constructed of various materials, such . 
rotten wood, mosses, grasses and plant stems, and lin 
with rootlets, horsehair or fine grasses. All the 
materials have been found in the nests, though by 1 
means in every nest. The construction varied conside 
ably, but no clay or mud is used. The nests were ve 
