Mr. Nehrling writes During migration in autumn and spring thè Grey-cheeked Thrush
is a common bird in our woodlands. In northern Illinois it makes its appearance late in
September and passes southward without long delay. In spring it usually arrives during the
last days of April and then often lingers several weeks. At this time you may hear its really
beautiful, delicious song. It is unlike the song of all the smaller Thrushes, but is nearest to
that of the Hermit. It differs, however, in being exactly inverse, for whereas the Hermit begins
with its lowest notes and proceeds on an ascending scale, Alice’s Thrush begins with its highest
and concludes with its lowest note.”
Mr. E. W. Nelson, in his work on the Natural History of Alaska, observes :—“ Dali records- a
nest obtained from an elevation of about 6 feet in a small alder. This nest was made of hair,
lined with scraps of deer-hair, feathers, and moss. A nest obtained by me near St. Michael’s,
on the 1st of June, is an extremely small, loose structure, formed by lining a small depression^
at the base of a shrub in the midst of an alder-thicket with fine soft grass leaves. The material
of the nest is uniform throughout, and in this particular partly bears out Dr. Brewer’s statement
in the ‘History of North American Birds,’ which is: ‘The nests [of T. alidce] are also quite
different in their appearance and style of structure. The Hypnum mosses are wholly wanting
in those of T. alidce? This statement is not confirmed, however, by the examination of o.ther
nests. A second example, obtained at St. Michael’s on June 20, was composed mainly ,__qf
these mosses mixed with a small amount of coarse grass. This nest was placed upon the
branching base of a small alder only a few inches from the ground. The first-mentioned
measured ¡¡g inches across the top by 2 inches deep, and the eggs which it contained measure
respectively, *93 by *62, *90 by '64, and '93 by '68. These eggs are blue, with a varying amount
of reddish-brown speckling, which is most abundant at the larger end. In two specimens of
this set the spots are thinly scattered over the shell, while in the other two the speckling is so
distributed that over half the surface is concealed by it. Of the specimens in the National Museum
Collection some are scarcely marked at all, while in others the ground-colour is nearly hidden.
The single egg found in the second nest measures '92 by '69. This nest measures 3 inches in depth
by 4 inches in width, the central cavity being 2 inches deep.
“ It may be remarked here that the nest just described is typical of the structure made
by T. swainsoni, according to Dr. Brewer, but, as every field-ornithologist is aware, any attempt at
an exact science of zoology and the study of the nests of birds must fail. Observation shows
that in building their nests birds are necessarily influenced by the surroundings and by the
nature of the material near their nesting-sites. The so-called instinct which has been supposed
to lead birds of one species to almost invariably select a certain kind of material and a certain
position for their nests has little foundation in fact. . The nesting-range of the Grey-cheeked
Thrush extends throughout Alaska, as specimens have been obtained in all parts of the
Territory, during the breeding-season, except, however, the islands of Bering Sea and the Aleutian
Chain.”
The nesting of T. alidce is thus described by Dr. Brewer :—“ The nests measure about 4 inches
in diameter and 2 f in height. The cavity is 2 inches deep, and its diameter 2£ inches. They
are usually compact for the nest of a Thrush, and are composed chiefly of an elaborate interweaving
of fine sedges, leaves, stems of the more delicate Eguisetacece, dry grasses, strips of fine bark,
and decayed leaves, the whole intermingled with the paniculated inflorescence of grasses. There
is little or no lining other than these materials. These nests were all found, with but few
exceptions, on the branches of low trees, from two to seven feet from the ground. In a few
exceptional cases the nests were built on the ground.
“ Occasionally nests of this species are found constructed with the base and sides of solid
mud, as with the Common Robin (Tarine migratorius). In these, as also in some other cases,
their nests are usually found on or near the ground. So far as I am aware, neither its occasional
position on the ground nor its mud-frames are peculiarities ever noticeable in nests of
T. swainsoni.
“ The èggs were usually four in number. Their colour is either a deep green tint, or green
slightly tinged with blue ; and they are marked with spots of russet- and yellowish-browD,
varying both in size and frequency. Their mean length is -92 of an inch, and their mean breadth
'64. | The maximum length is '94 and the minimum *88 of an inch. There is apparently a
constant variation from the eggs of the T. swainsoni ; those of T. alida} having a more distinctly
blue ground-colour. The nests are also quite different in their appearance and style of structure.
The Eypnum mosses, so marked a feature in the nests of T. swainsoni, as also in those of
T. ustulatus, are wholly wanting in those of T. alida
This species, in its fully adult plumage, is easily recognized by the foEowing characters :—
Jthe sides of thè body are grey, with a faint tinge of olive, but the grey, is the predominating
colour, though it is darker than in T. fulvescens and T. salidcola. The colour of the upper
parts is also dark olive-brown, and the sides of the face are likewise dusky grey, as also the
cheeks. The axillaries resemble the sides of the body in colour, and the mirror at the base
of the quills is white and not very conspicuous. The throat is almost white, with very: little
tint of buff, and the triangular black spots are very strongly pronounced: “ upper mandible
black, the lower one dark anteriorly, lighter at the base, drying very pale ; feet dark, with paler
soles ; gape yellow ” (L. M. Turner).
Mr. Nelson has given the accompanying note on the plumages of the species :—“ Fall
specimens possess much mòre of the warm, buffy tint on the breast than spring birds, although
many of the latter have more or less, and in some specimens obtained by me from the Yukon
the buff is nearly as intense and widely-spread as upon typical examples of T. swainsoni. The
fuU-grown young of this species, obtained on the Lower Yukon, in August 1877, has the
dorsal surface of a dull brownish-olive, nearly uniform, but with a lighter shade and a decided
brownish wash on the outer edges of the wing-feathers and on the tail, especiaUy near the tip.
The feathers on the side of the head, embracing the eyes and extending back to the nape,
includine the scapulars and intermediate feathers of the back, are each marked with a weE-defined
oval, lanceolate, or sagittate central area, of a dingy shade, which in some places becomes pale
buffy-yellowish. The feathers on the throat, neck, and breast are pale buffy-white, with black
tips. These tips are larger and more intense on the breast. They are centrally located and
somewhat oval or arrow-shaped on the throat, but on the breast they become a squarely-cut
black edging to the feathers, which limits the white by a nearly straight line. These tips pass
to faint edgings of black on the white of the middle of abdomen, and shade graduaUy into a
brownish-ohve on the sides and flanks. The feathers on the sides and rump are dingy
yellowish-brown, indistinctly barred with blackish. The middle of the crown and rump are
immaculate. The second specimen obtained at St. Michael’s, August 25, is in a little more
advanced stage than the one just described, and has the pale buff shade across the breast and
sides of the neck of the second plumage, The lores are greyish-white, and the spots on the
breast are nearly as in the adult. The biU is dull horn-colour, lighter at the base of the lower
mandible. Both of the specimens just described are merging into the second or adult plumage,
but the first is but very little changed, and has lost only the spots <5n the crown and rump and the
white tips on the wing-coverts. The second specimen, though a little older, still retains the faint
wing-bars formed by the light tips to the coverts.”
The figure in the Plate is taken from a Philadelphian specimen in the Seebohm Collection.
[R. B. S.]