167 
mud, as with the Common Robin (Turdus migratorius). In these, as also in some other cases, 
their nests are usually found on or near the ground. бо far as I am aware, neither its occasional 
position on the ground nor its mud-frames are peculiarities ever noticeable in nests of 
T. swainsoni. 
“Тһе eggs were usually four in number. Their colour is either a deep green tint, or green 
slightly tinged with blue; and they are marked with spots of russet- and yellowish-browr, 
varying both in size and frequency. Their mean length is "92 of an inch, and their mean breadth 
‘64. The maximum length is :94 and the minimum :88 of an inch. There is apparently a 
constant variation from the eggs of the T. swainsoni; those of T. alicia having a more distinctly 
blue ground-colour. Тһе nests are also quite different іп their appearance and style of structure. 
The Пурпит mosses, so marked a feature in the nests of 7. swainsoni, as also in those of 
T. ustulatus, are wholly wanting in those of 7. alicia.” 
This species, in its fully adult plumage, is easily recognized by the following characters :— 
Тһе sides of the body are grey, with a faint tinge of olive, but the grey is the predominating 
colour, though it is darker than in 7. fulvescens and 7. salicicola. Тһе colour of the upper 
parts is also dark olive-brown, and the sides of the face are likewise dusky grey, as also the 
cheeks. Тһе axillaries resemble the sides of the body in colour, and the mirror at the base 
of the quills is white and not very conspicuous. Тһе throat is almost white, with very little 
tint of buff, and the triangular black spots are very strongly pronounced: “upper mandible 
black, the lower one dark anteriorly, lighter at the base, drying very pale; feet dark, with paler 
soles; gape yellow” (L. M. Turner). 
Mr. Nelson has given the accompanying note on Ше plumages of the species:—“ Fall 
specimens possess much more of the warm, buffy tint on the breast than spring birds, although 
many of the latter have more or less, and in some specimens obtained by me from the Yukon 
the buff is nearly as intense and widely-spread as upon typical examples of 7. swainsoni. Тһе 
full-grown young of this species, obtained on the Lower Yukon, in August 1877, has the 
dorsal surface of a dull brownish-olive, nearly uniform, but with a lighter shade and a decided 
brownish wash on the outer edges of the wing-feathers and on the tail, especially near the tip. 
The feathers on the side of the head, embracing the eyes and extending back to the nape, 
including the scapulars and intermediate feathers of the back, are each marked with a well-defined 
oval, lanceolate, or sagittate central area, of a dingy shade, which in some places becomes pale 
buffy-yellowish. Тһе feathers on the throat, neck, and breast are pale buffy-white, with black 
tips. These tips are larger and more intense on the breast. They are centrally located and 
somewhat oval or arrow-shaped on the throat, but on the breast they become a squarely-cut 
black edging to the feathers, which limits the white by a nearly straight line. These tips pass 
to faint edgings of black on the white of the middle of abdomen, and shade gradually into a 
brownish-olive on the sides and flanks. The feathers on the sides and rump are dingy 
yellowish-brown, indistinctly barred with blackish. The middle of the crown and rump are 
immaculate. Тһе second specimen obtained at St. Michaels, August 25, is in a little more 
advanced stage than the one just described, and has the pale buff shade across the breast and 
sides of the neck of the second plumage. The lores are greyish-white, and the spots on the 
breast are nearly as in the adult. Тһе bill is dull horn-colour, lighter at the base of the lower 
mandible. Both of the specimens just described are merging into the second or adult plumage, 
but the first is but very little changed, and has lost only the spots on the crown and rump and the 
white tips on the wing-coverts. The second specimen, though a little older, still retains the faint 
wing-bars formed by the light tips to the coverts.” 
The figure in the Plate is taken from a Philadelphian specimen in the Seebohm Collection. 
ГЕ. B. 81 
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