184 
of the song without the prelude. They were so excessively shy that it was some time before 1 
actually identified the song as belonging to this bird. Usually long before getting within 
anything like shooting distance the notes would cease, and while vainly endeavouring to catch 
a glimpse of the shy performer through the dense foliage above, suddenly his mocking call-note 
would come from some impenetrable thicket near by. Its range of altitude during the breeding- 
season is from 4200 to 5000 feet.” | 
Mr. Dwight in his paper on the * Summer Birds of Prince Edward Island,” writes :—“ Very 
abundant. They are usually excessively shy and difficult to obtain, although several may be 
singing within hearing at the same time. They frequent thick growths of spruces, and from 
some commanding perch pour forth their rich song. If they become aware of your approach 
even a gunshot or more away, they dive down into the dense undergrowth, and a few soft alarm- 
notes are the last you hear of them. Squeaking to them will bring them to you for one brief 
look, which satisfies them, but not you, for they generally see you first and at close range. 
Sometimes they sing in the thickets of spruces, but are more apt to have a particular perch, 
perhaps on some ‘towering dead tree. I heard no songs that I had any reason to suppose 
were other than true T. swainsonii, for the possibility of finding T. bicknelli от T. alicie had 
to be kept constantly in mind. I found no young even up to the last day of my stay, but that 
proves nothing with a bird so retiring. They sang more persistently and in greater numbers in the 
early morning and late evening hours.” | 
Mr. Bicknell gives the following note on the song of this Thrush (Auk, i. p. 129) :—“ This 
Thrush is in full song during its migration, which occupies the latter half or two-thirds of May, 
but is commonly silent in the autumn. It is, however, probable that singing may be indulged 
in at that season, for I was assured by one who was familiar with the song of the species, that 
several were heard singing at Bay Ridge, Long Island, September 26, 1880, at the height of 
their migration. 
«On their arrival in September the new plumage has not always completed its growth. In 
many specimens growing feathers are scattered over the body and often some of the remiges have 
their bases still soft, or even sheathed by the matrix of the feather. When the birds first 
appear they have begun to develop adipose tissue, and it is not long before they become 
excessively fat." 
Mr. Nelson writes:—“ А set of eggs was brought me in June 1878 from Nulato; they 
measure respectively 0:89 х 0:65 and 0:94 5 0:67 inch. The ground-colour is blue, exactly like 
the eggs of T. alicie, with scattered purplish shell-markings and fine specks of reddish-brown, 
which latter are much more numerous at the larger end. The nest is composed of dried grass-stems 
with a few fragments of moss, which are scattered through the structure as if by accident. The eggs 
of this species and of T. aliciw are absolutely indistinguishable, both in size and shape, as are also 
the nests, according to the observations I have been able to make.” 
The specimen figured in the Plate is an adult bird, from Pennsylvania, in the Seebohm 
Collection. [R. B. S] 
