THK VAHIED TiriillSH. ■ 



TIlis is one of the iticst beautifully plumaged 

 ai)d pleasing songsters whose presence aud 

 notes affect the wild woods in the lower 

 P'razer valley, in British Columbia. In size it 

 is about the same as the Hermit Thrush, and 

 its song notes closely resemble those of the 

 ■iiuifielmus, but to me these did not appear to 

 be so lond or prolonged, yet, as the season 

 was still early, and before tlie nesting pei iod 

 had begun wheu I had the pleisuie of li.suMi- 

 iug to its lays, it may be that, as the \^arie<l 

 Thrush season advances, it pitches its notes in 

 a liigher key, aud devotes more time and 

 energy to the emission of its charmiug music, 

 and, while the ear is delighted with its song, 

 the eye of the student of nature who rambles 

 in these primeval wilds, which it makes its 

 haunts and home, is no less pleased with its 

 |vai'ied plumage of dark bi-owu and golden 

 yellow. And when to these natural advan- 

 tages of song are added its giaceful move- 

 ments among the deep green foliage and 

 snowy blossoms, wliich in the early summer 

 intermingle in the Columbian forest, it may 

 be imagined that this species is among the 

 most noteworthy of all the citifainia families 

 west of the Rocky Mouutains. 



The tourist, whatever be his object, who 

 suddenly finds hiuiself iu the woods biuilerlug 

 the streams or wave washed shores of the 

 Pacific Coast of our western province, is at 

 once astonished at the different appe 

 his surroundings to what he had pr 

 observed nearer the Atlantic sea-board, 

 woods, the rocks, the mountains, have 

 different aspect, oven the air has a different 

 smell, and for a time produces different effects 

 on the physical system and impressions on 

 the mind, and many of the birds whose forms 

 meet his gaze and music falls upon his ciir, 

 have differently lined plumages, and notes. 



Favored by a rich soil and temperati' rli~ 

 mate, giant firs raise their waving tops to an 

 altitude surpassing those in most other lands; 

 monster cedars rival these in tallness and 

 trunk proportions; balsams and other evei- 

 greens, though much smaller, nevertheless 

 standing close together, cast a deep shade on 

 the damp earth, from whence spring, while 

 i»termingling with these, si>ecies of white 

 Iwood, alders, and large Howei'ing dogwood, 

 which altogether make a forest so dense that 

 it can scarcely be penetrated, aud few attemi)t 

 to do so except on matters of business. It is 

 late in the forenoon before the sun's rays pen- 

 etrate these gloomy woods, and though out in 

 ' the clearing the heat is at times oppi'essive, 

 ^yet in these shades thei'e is always a coolness, 

 though the wind's influence is sehhun felt and 

 stiH'ms cannot rage, while in most pi 

 the S]n-ing and summer advances, the ground 

 is covered with mosses intermingled with 

 plants and flowers of varied and beautiful 



hues. Amid such scenes are the haunts and 

 home of the Varied Thrusli, aud should it 

 api)reciate views of scenery, which perhaps it 

 does, it has only to move a short distance 

 from the deepest shade to the lakelet shoie, 

 the river baids, or the margin of the rippling 

 brook, to view the azure sky, the noonday sun, 

 aud the dark outlines of rock-formed moun- 

 tains whose summits are capped with eternal 

 snows. 



Such feeble outline of some of the localities 

 affected by the presence of this species may 

 assist in cimveying to the mental vision of the^ 

 reader ideas not otherwise attainable, yet i| 

 inse])arable fiom its life history, aud should 

 the efistern reader wandei' on a summer morn- 

 ing in some dark wood, and hear in the higher 

 bra,iiches the song notes of the Rose-breasted 

 friMsbeak aud the Scarlet T;inager, and in 

 j unison with these, in the lower woods, the! 



.sly 

 The 

 all a 



'Ul-inspiring lays of the Wood Tlirush, he^ 

 may without much stietch of the imaginationj 

 assume that he is passing tliidugh a part of a 

 British Columbian forest and listening to the | 

 musical strains of the Black-headed Goshawk, 

 the Western Tanager and the rather melan- '| 

 choly refrains of the Varied Thrush. 



Among the vines and bushes, as well as the 

 ^ferns, flowers and mosses, this species finds 

 the berries aud lower fcu-ms of animated exis- 

 tenoes, as its daily needs require. I 

 Its nest, of which I saw a few specimens 1 

 of the ijast year, is composed almost wludly 

 j of mosses, lined with lichens and other soft, 

 dry materials. This is placed in bushes, or 

 I among branches not far off the ground, or in 

 much similar situ itions as that of the Hermit 

 ! Thrush. The eggs, four or live iu the set, are 1 

 of a bluish luie, mottled with reddish brown |; 

 spots. This species, known also as the Varied 

 Robin and Oregon Thrush, is reported to be 

 more abundant on the sea-shore, where it 

 remains throughout the year, than further 

 inland, and here among the stunted firs, rooks 

 and sail Is it linds a scenery much different 

 from that of the more inland valleys, as well 

 as the effects of the sea-breezes and the rolling 

 waves. In the museum at Victoria I saw 

 some line, mounted specimens, and in the 

 deei) woods near Port Kells its songs strongly 

 reminded me of the Wood Thrush of Ontario; 

 but uniler the circumstances the etfects wore 

 more mehiucholy than pleasing. 



0.&O.Vol.l7.Mar.l89a'p- 4oSJ" 



