202 
SINGING BIRDS. 
The habit of this species of assembling in large communities to 
roost at night, during the summer months, was unknown to natur- 
alists until a few years ago, and no mention of this habit appeared 
in print until October, 1890, when detailed accounts of several 
“ roosts ” that had been discovered in the vicinity of Boston were 
publislied in the Atlantic Monthly ” and “ The Auk.” They were 
written by Mr. Bradford Torrey and Mr. William Brewster re- 
spectively. The “roosts” are situated in Norton’s Woods, on 
Beaver Brook, Belmont, in Longwood, and in Melrose. 
The Robins assembling in these places are numbered by 
thousands. 
Note. — A few examples of the Varied Thrush {Hespero- 
cichla ncsnid) have wandered from the Pacific coast to the Eastern 
States; and the Red- winged Thrush {Turdus iliams) occasion- 
ally wanders from Europe to Greenland. 
WOOD THRUSH. 
Turdus mustelinus. 
Char. Above, tawny, brightest on head, shading to olive on rump and 
tail ; beneath, white j breast and sides spotted with dusky. Length p/i 
to %% inches. 
Nest. In a thicket or on low branch of small tree, usually in a moist 
place; of grass and leaves cemented with mud, lined with fine roots. 
Eggs. 3-5; greenish blue ; 1.05X0.75. 
This solitary and retiring songster during summer inhabits 
the whole continent from Hudson’s Bay to Florida ; and ac- 
cording to my friend Mr. Ware, breeds as far south as the 
vicinity of Natchez, in the territory of Mississippi. Whether 
it leaves the boundaries of the United States in the winter is 
not satisfactorily ascertained ; as the species is then silent, and 
always difficult of access, its residence is rendered peculiarly 
doubtful. The lateness of the season in which it still lingers 
renders it probable that it may winter in the Southern States, 
as a young bird, gleaning insects and berries, has been caught 
in a garden in Boston on the 26th of October. 
From the southern parts of the Union, or wherever he may 
winter, the Wood Thnish arrives in the Middle States from the 
