210 
SINGING BIRDS. 
fallen heap of lilac twigs in a ravine, and also in a small 
withered branch of red oak which had fallen into a bush ; be- 
low it was also bedded with exactly similar leaves, so as easily 
to deceive the eye. But with all these precautions they appear 
to lose many eggs and young by squirrels and other animals. 
The nest is usually bottomed with dry oak or beech leaves, 
coarse stalks of grass and weeds, and lined very generally with 
naturally dissected foliage, its stalks, some fine grass, and at 
other times a mixture of root-fibres ; but no earth is employed 
in the fabric. The eggs, 4 or 5, are of an emerald green with- 
out spots, and differ from those of the Catbird only in being a 
little smaller and more inclined to blue. So shy is the species 
that though I feigned a violent chirping near the nest contain- 
ing their young, which brought Sparrows and a neighboring 
Baltimore to the rescue, the parents, peeping at a distance, did 
not venture to approach or even express any marked concern, 
though they prove very watchful guardians when their brood 
are fledged and with them in the woods. They have com- 
monly two broods in the season; the second being raised 
about the middle of July, after which their musical notes are 
but seldom heard. I afterwards by an accident obtained a 
young fledged bird, which retained in the cage the unsocial 
and silent timidity peculiar to the species. 
Wilson’s Thrush breeds farther to the southward than the Her- 
mit, but does not range quite so far north. It is common in the 
Maritime Provinces and near the city of Quebec, but has not been 
taken recently on the north shore of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. It 
breeds abundantly in Ontario and in northern Ohio. 
In New Brunswick I have found the nest as frequently in an 
open pasture as in more obscure places. 
