8 
BIRD LIFE IN WASHINGTON 
in a fir. It is made of almost anything 
Busset-back can find. The most common 
materials are grass, stems and mosses 
with dried leaves for the lining. 
If we find the nest in June there will 
probably be four eggs in it, if in July 
three may be a complete set. The eggs 
are greenish blue spotted all over with 
brown or blue. 
Busset-back is a typical thrush with the 
olive brown back and the spotted breast. 
We have other thrushes less common 
than he, which resemble him in size and 
color. They are the Hermit Thrushes. 
They are practically silent with us. 
“Mountain angels,” they have been aptly 
called. I have met them in the ravines 
of the mountains and as I sank reverently 
to my knees to listen to the matchless 
singers, I felt as though the soul of a 
mountain hermit were breathing an ines¬ 
timably sweet prayer to the angels. The 
sturdy Alaskan goes to the foot hills to 
listen while he pities us to whom the heav¬ 
enly music is usually denied. 
OBEGON TOWHEE 
Hopping over the brakes and brush 
piles almost any time of day, and any sea¬ 
son of the year, is a beautiful dark bird 
sometimes called the ground robin. 
Bonnet and cape, back, wings and tail 
are black save for the white thumb marks 
