84 LAND-BIRDS AND GAME-BIRDS 
which I have just described. It begins with loud, clear, and 
ringing notes, and ends with the softer notes, which die away 
almost imperceptibly. It was this song that Wilson described 
as having heard the Water Thrush utter in the vast cane-brakes 
of the South, where these birds find a home during a part of 
the year. 
(C) avrocaritius. Golden-crowned “ Thrush.” ‘“ Oven- 
bird.” * Wagtail.” 
(In Massachusetts a common summer-resident.) 
(a). 6-63 inches long. Oliveabove. Below white. Breast 
and sides (darkly or) black-streaked. Crown orange, bordered 
by black stripes. (Details omitted.) 
(b). The nest is placed on the ground, in the woods. It is 
usually lined with hairs, and is generally but not invariably 
rooftd. The eggs of each set —only one being commonly laid 
in Massachusetts, and that about June first, or perhaps earlier 
—are usually four, averaging between ‘90 X ‘70 and °80 X 62 
of an inch. They are subject to considerable variation, but 
are generally (creamy) white, with either minute lilac markings 
about the crown, or markings of reddish-brown and faint lilac 
scattered (not very thickly) chiefly in blotches, either all over 
the egg, or only about the greater end. 
(c). The birds, of whom I am about to write, are variously 
called Golden-crowned ‘ Thrushes,” having formerly been 
classed with the thrushes®4 (and their crown being dull orange), 
“Oven-birds,” because of the usual construction of their nests, 
and ‘* Wagtails,” because of their habit of flirting their tails, 
by which name I shall refer to them. They are common 
summer-residents throughout New England; much less so, how- 
ever, in the northern parts, though known to breed in Arctic 
countries. They generally reach Massachusetts in the first 
week of May and leave it in September, sometimes lingering 
almost until October, quite unobserved, because of their rarely 
broken silence at that season. They frequent woodland of 
24 Mr. Maynard adheres to this arrangement. 
