52 EEE AC USD SOB hOUN ee a aaa eee, 
only reflect inadequate exploration. 
Regrettably, veery habitat in Il- 
linois is endangered by sprawling 
real estate development and by 
agriculture. On July 6, 1972, in the 
Lee County area, where heavy 
machinery was destroying the hab- 
itat, we collected one singing male, 
the only certain breeding bird we 
have examined from Illinois. The 
specimen is clearly of the western 
race salicicola and is, in fact, the 
grayest veery specimen we have 
seen from any part of the range, 
but it is most closely matched, 
both in the grayness of the back 
color and in the character of ven- 
tral spotting, by a female specimen 
(Univ. of Ill. Mus. of Nat. Hist. No. 
2586) from Okanagan, British Col- 
umbia. The _ Illinois specimen 
weighed 33.9 grams and had little 
fat. The testes were enlarged 
(about 11 x 5 mm), and the stomach 
contained seeds as well as some 
pulp of blackberries (Rubus sp.). 
The bird was netted by using a 
recorded song as a lure. This bird 
and other veeries that we observed 
in late June and July in Illinois 
sang most frequently in late after- 
noon toward dusk, though they also 
sang and called some in the early 
morning, and could be induced to 
sing even in midday with a re- 
corded song. 
We are indebted to the staffs of 
the Chicago Museum of Natural 
History and the University of IIli- 
nois Museum of Natural History 
for permission to use their collec- 
tions. 
VEERY 
BREEDING RECORDS 
MACOA 
ne 
} 
SANGAMON 7 
Lt econ 
JERSEY | 
Breeding records for the veery in_ Illinois. 
Solid symbols represent actual nest records; 
open symbols represent June records of 
pairs of territorial males. Square symbols are 
records prior to 1900, triangles are records 
between 1900 and 1949 inclusive, and round 
symbols are records since 1950. 
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