OLOGIST 



[Vol. 16-No. 4 



Nesting of Wilson's Thrush in 

 Western Pennsylvania. 



Wilson's Thrush {Hylocichla fuscescens) has 

 heretofore been considered to he a transient 

 visitor in Pennsylvania, breeding but very 

 rarely, and then chiefly in mountainous 

 districts. Within the last two years, however, 

 I have had the good fortune to discover that 

 in this section of the state there are localities 

 where, strange as it may seem, the species is a 

 common breeder, so that tlie records of its 

 nesting as given in the May and June (1890) 

 numbers of tlie O. & O. by Messrs. Koch, 

 Norris, and Sui'ber, however exceptional tliey 

 may be for the localities mentioned, cannot he 

 held to indicate the uniform rarity of the bird 

 as a summer resident throughout tlie entire 

 state, for cjuite the contrary is true. 



On May 1.5, 1889, I boarded the train bound 

 for Lcasuresville, Butler County. When, late 

 the same afternoon, I stepped off at the lonely 

 way-station of Monroe, a single glance at my 

 sun'oundings convinced me tliat I was in a 

 locality especially j'ich in bird-life, and, as 

 subsequent events proved, my Judgment 

 formed then was coij'cct. And as I trudged 

 up the hill, tired and diiinerless, and cairying 

 a heavy valise and shotgun, with the prospect 

 of a three-miles' walk in the hot sun over a 

 hilly, dusty road before arriving at my des- 

 tination, I was cheered by the song of a, liii'il I 

 had never heard before, but in the llule-like 

 quality of whose notes 1 recognized its aflinily 

 with the Wood Thrush. I did not see the bird 

 at the time, and pursuit was obviously out of 

 the question, but I instantly decided that it 

 must be Wilson's Thrush. Thereafter, during 

 my stay, while wandering amid the eternal 

 gloom of the trackless, hemlock forest and the 

 swampy thicket. I constantly heard the same 

 song, which may he expressed by the syllables 

 hee-a%of'('-(ni)<''(i'-iiineer-moeer-cme(;r-avnf , begin- 

 ning loud and clear, but gradually dying aw.ay 

 toward the end, — a fai-away, weird song, with 

 a wild ring to it savoring of untouched nature 

 and the piimeval forest. The acoustic quality 

 of the notes was such that they always seemed 

 to come from a distance, but though I rightly 

 suspected that this was not really the case the 

 birds always eluded my observation while 

 singing, and it was not until .June 11th that 

 my perseverance was at last rewarded by 

 seeing the bird in the act, and thus proving 

 finally that my suspicions, as to the author of 

 the songs being Wilson's Thrush, were correct. 



EMot ofO. & 0.: 



Allow me to add an instance of the breeding 

 of Wilson's Thrush in Pennsylvania, to the 

 report of Messrs. Norris and Koch in May 

 O. & O. t have a set of three eggs of this 

 bird taken June 10, 1885, in Delaware County, 

 Pa. Thad. Barber. 



White Sulphur Springs, W. Va. 



, Penn. 

 Dun, Pa. 



Istm's 

 ■ation 

 Nid- 

 four. 



Aprh. 1891.] 



AND p. 130 



Previously, however, on May 27th, I had 

 taken the nest of the species. On the day in 

 question, which by the way was rainy and dis- \ 

 agreeable, I was accompanied by Mr. James Thrush 

 Myers, one of the local hunters and woodsmen, d seven 

 who proposed that we should go to a nest ul, pi o- 

 which he had found a few days before. After of the 

 a walk of about a mile, interrupted, however, ' 

 by an exciting adventure with a Blue Yellow- V 

 backed Warbler, we came to a high woods , • 

 with a thick undergrowth of laurel and ; 

 huckleberry, where the bird was presently 

 flushed from her nest on the ground. I gave L 

 one srlance at the nest, another at the bird. \" 



•■ glance at the nest, another at the bird, 

 exclaimed " Wilson's Thrush!" and in a twink- 

 ling fired and killed her. Returning to the 

 nest, 1 found it to contain three eggs, of 

 exactly the same shade of bluish-green as 

 those of the Wood Thrush. They were, of 

 course, smaller, and, upon blowing, proved to 

 be slightly incubated. The nest was not 

 sunken in the ground, but placed on a mound 

 of leaves, thus escaping the damp; it was 

 surrounded and canopied over with huckle- 

 berry bushes. Leaves, strips of bark and 

 weed stalks entered into its composition, with 

 lirokcn leaves as lining. Measurements showed 

 it to be five inches in external diameter by 

 four .and a lialf inches in external depth, with 

 a cavity two and three-quarter inches by two 

 and three-quarter inches. 



I may add as a significant fact that I have 

 never as yet found this species in Beaver 

 County, either as a summer I'esident or as a 

 migrant, although the other species of the 

 genus native to the Eastern United States are 

 abundant in their season. 



W. E. Clydp Todd. 



Beaver, Beaver Co., Pa. 



IS futfcex- 

 , I found I I 

 nest of a \ \ 

 )ubt as to ' 

 only egg 

 know of, 

 ire in the ' 



iby,Mioh. 

 )bs, 



ns (Steph.) Baird. 

 tne of the last of the 

 iice. Arrives from 

 to breed. Occasion- 



5.B. 



loh. leoiNotea. 

 B. Swales. 



took a set of four eggs 

 bird. The Viery does not 

 j ureeu iiere as commonly as the Wood Thrush. 



O. A O. Vol. 18, July. 1893 p. 100 



Deteoit^Mich. 1891Notss. 

 fi.S. Swales, 



I May 27. Wilson's Thrush, three eggs, 



O. A O. Vol. 18, July. 1893 p. 100 



SetroitJtficJi. 1891 Notes. 

 i. B.H. Swales, 



j June 8. Wood and I went out to High- 

 I land Park. Took a set of four spotted eggs 

 Jof the Wilson's Thrush, 



0.6 O. Vol. 18, July. 1893 p;iOO 



