The Varied Thrushes 
not more than two inches across the principal part, but measuring hori¬ 
zontally from sharp angle to sharp angle a little more. He went through 
that wire without perceptible loss of velocity, and though you could 
hear a slight rubbing sound, indicating that he had found the wire a 
close fit, nothing like a blow. The bird must have had its wings close- 
folded at the instant of passage. Even so, I do not think it could have 
passed without complete contact on every side. One can see how such 
an engineer could thread the thickets at full speed.” 
The Varied Thrush is chiefly a ground-feeder and nothing edible 
that is likely to strew the ground comes amiss. It is on this account 
that the birds venture out from hedges and coppices to take sly nips 
at the festive angleworms. Never shall I forget how, while seated by 
the window in one of the most luxurious homes of Montecito, I saw a 
Varied Thrush not twenty feet away, hopping across the perfect lawn in 
search of a vulgar worm. The audacity! and, like the Robin, the Varied 
Thrush gratefully accepts the largess of fallen olives. Indeed, it is 
to be suspected that the wily Thrush gets about two olives to Robin’s 
one, for, mind you, he is “devilish cute.” Or, where olives fail to tempt, 
or birds resist, the Christmas berry yields its yuletide cheer, and the 
unfailing pepper berry (Schinus molle) gives a palatable consolation. 
To find the bird at nesting time we must repair again to the humid 
forests—no matter where. My own experience has been chiefly confined 
to Washington. 
Here are the woods that abound in moss-bunches,—great balls 
of thrifty green which grow, without apparent excuse, alike from the 
flimsiest and from the most substantial supports. It is in view of the 
abundance of these, that the Varied Thrush builds as it does, right 
out in the open of the underwood, near the top, or at least well up, in 
a small fir tree. The searcher has only the advantage of knowing that 
in order to secure adequate support the bird must build close up to 
the stem of the tree. An occasional exception to this rule is when branches 
intersect and so offer additional strength. Owing to the fact that the 
large timber affords considerable protection to the younger growth 
below, and because of the superior construction of the nests, they prove 
very durable. Old nests are common; and groups of half a dozen in 
the space of a single acre are evidently the consecutive product ol a 
single pair of birds. 
There is a notable division of territory among these Thrushes. 
As a rule, they maintain a distance of half a mile or so from any other 
nesting pair. In two instances, however, one observer found nests 
within three hundred yards of neighbors. 
When one approaches the center of a nesting reserve, the brooding 
