A History of North American Birds; Land Birds; Vol. 1 of 3Baird, Spencer Fullerton
Science
A History of North American Birds; Land Birds; Vol. 1 of 3
Baird, Spencer Fullerton
Birds -- North America
Dr. Cooper was of the opinion that a few of these thrushes remained in
Washington Territory throughout the summer, as he frequently met with
them in the dark spruce forests of that region as late as June and
July. He describes the song as consisting of five or six notes in a
minor key, and in a scale regularly descending. It was heard
continually throughout the summer, among the tops of the trees, but
only in the densest forests. Dr. Suckley states that after a fall of
snow they would be found along the sandy beaches near the salt water,
where they were both abundant and tame. We are indebted to Mr. W. H.
Dall for our first authentic knowledge of its nest and eggs. The
former measures 6 inches in diameter with a depth of 2½ inches. It has
but a very slight depression, apparently not more than half an inch in
depth. The original shape of the nest had, however, been somewhat
flattened in transportation. The materials of which it was composed
were fine dry mosses and lichens impacted together, intermingled with
fragments of dry stems of grasses.
A nest of this thrush obtained by Dr. Minor, in Alaska, is a much more
finished structure. Its base and periphery are composed of an
elaborate basket-work of slender twigs. Within these is an inner nest
consisting of an interweaving of fine dry grasses and long gray
lichens.
The eggs in size, shape, ground color, and markings are not
distinguishable from those of the _Turdus musicus_ of Europe. They
measure 1.13 inches in length by .80 in breadth, are of a light blue
with a greenish shading, almost exactly similar to the ground color of
the _T. migratorius_. They are very distinctly marked and spotted with
a dark umber-brown approaching almost to blackness.
Mr. Dall informs us that the nest found by him was built in a willow
bush, about two feet from the ground, and on the top of a large mass
of rubbish lodged there by some previous inundation. Other nests of
the same species were met with in several places between Fort Yukon
and Nulato, always on or near a river-bank and in low and secluded
localities.
They arrive at Nulato about May 15, and prefer the vicinity of water,
frequenting the banks of small streams in retired places. Mr. Dall
states that he has seen the male bird on a prostrate log near the
nest, singing with all his might, suddenly cease and run up and down
the log for a few minutes, strutting in a singular manner, then
stopping and singing again; and keeping up this curious performance.
Specimens were received from Sitka, Kodiak, Cook’s Inlet and Admiralty
Islands.
SUBFAMILY MIMINÆ.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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