Bds. Obs. near Grftylook Mt. Berkshire 

 Co, Mass. June 28 -July 16. W.Faxon 



76. Turdus aliciae bicknelli. Bicknell's Gray-cheeked Thrush. — 

 On the third of July 1 visited tlie summit of Graylock, foi- the first time 

 under favorable conditions of weather. I had barely reached the top 

 when the chant of Bicknell's Thrush was heard issuing from the 

 thick growth of spruces, firs, and mountain ashes that skirt the clearing. 

 The singer was perched upon one of the larger spruces, perhaps twenty 

 feet from the ground. As T approached nearer he darted into the dense 

 undergrowth of hobble-bushes and mountain maples. He proved to be 

 so shy that it was not until my second subsequent visit to the mountain 

 top (July 6) that I succeeded in shooting him. I therefore had ample 

 opportunity to hear the song at short distance, for the bird was not 

 chary of song when well concealed by intervening tree-trunks and 

 foliage. The song is very much like that of Wilson's Thrush in 

 quality of tone, but quite different in form. In neither regard does it 

 bear any close resemblance to the song of Swainson'sThrush. It is intro- 

 duced by two or three low clucks only to be heard at a short distance, 

 which seem to the listener to be involuntary, mechanical sounds, like 

 those that precede the song of the Whip-poor-will. The bird was shot 

 while singing. The alarm or call-note of this species resembles the 

 Veery's, although distinguishable. It is entirely different from the 

 abrupt whistle of the Olive-back. All of the HylocichhT; are as readily 

 distinguished by their call-notes as by their proper songs. What I take 

 to be the equivalent note of the Hermit Thrush is not the low chuck com- 

 monly heard while the bird is on its migration, but a peculiar sound which 

 always suggests to me a Finch rather than a Thrush. The Bicknell's Thrush 

 on Graylock remained in the same place to my knowledge for four days 

 in early July, in constant song. I do not doubt, therefore, that its nest 

 was near by. The condition of its testes, moreover, denoted a breeding bird. 

 I failed to find a nest, however, nor did I see or hear another specimen 

 although I visited the summit of Graylock on five subsequent days and 

 carefully explored the other high points of the range. 



Auk, Vl. April, 1889. p.l06 



^ ^ • ^. Aii> o°t. , ibyo, pp-cjyx-o 



T uijlus ahci^ bickneHi and Otocoris alpestris ptaticola as Summer 

 Residents of Berkshire County, Mass.— In 1889 (Auk, VI, 106) I recorded 

 the capture of Bicknell's Thrush on the summit of Mt. Graylock in early 



July, 1888, under circumstances which led me to believe that the bird 

 bred there. This year I passed the night of June 29-30 on the top of 

 Graylock and was again greeted, both in the evening and in the morning, 

 by the beautiful song of this Thrush,— the song so admirably character- 

 ized by Mr. John Burroughs in ' Riverby,' pp. 47, 49. A hasty search for 

 the nest in the midst of a drenching rain on the morning of the 30th 

 proved unavailing; but the anxiety manifested by the bird when I invaded 

 his domain confirmed my belief that this Thrush breeds on Graylock. 



