abiting bird,
feeding upon insects and berries in shrubbery and thickets. Their song
is said to be liquid, melodious and often long continued, equaling that
of any other bird. They nest on the ground in hollows under banks or
crevices about roots of trees or fallen stumps, making a large, loosely
constructed pile of weeds and trash, hollowed and lined with rootlets.
The three or four eggs, which are laid in June, are grayish white,
spotted with pale brown, chiefly or most abundantly about the large end.
Size .96 x .70.

755. WOOD THRUSH. _Hylocichla mustelina._

Range.--Eastern United States, breeding from North Carolina and Kansas
north to northern United States; winters south of our borders.

This Thrush with his brightly spotted breast is the most handsome of
this group of musical birds. They are common in damp woods and thickets,
in which places they breed, placing their nests of straw, leaves and
grasses in low trees usually between four and ten feet from the ground;
their nests are often very rustic, being ornamented by pieces of paper
and twigs with dead leaves attached hanging from the sides of the quite
bulky structures. During May or June they lay three or four greenish
blue eggs of about the shade of a Robin's. Size 1.05 x .70.

[Illustration 444: Blue-gray Gnatcatcher.]
[Illustration: Grayish white.]
[Illustration: Grayish white.]
[Illustration: Greenish blue.]
[Illustration: left hand margin.]

Page 443

756. VEERY. _Hylocichla fuscescens fuscescens._

Range.--Eastern North America, breeding in the northern half of its
United States range and in the southern British Provinces.

The Veery is very abundantly distributed in woodland, either moist or
dry, and nests on the ground or within a very few inches of it, usually
placing its structures of woven bark strips and grasses, in the midst of
a clump of sprouts or ferns. The three or four eggs which they lay in
May or June are bluish green, much darker than those of the Wood Thrush,
and nearly the color of those of the Catbird. Size .90 x .65.

756a. WILLOW THRUSH. _Hylocichla fuscescens salicicola._

Range.--Rocky Mountain region, north to British Columbia.

The nests and eggs of this similar bird do not differ from those of the
last.

757. GRAY-CHEEKED THRUSH. _Hylocichla aliciae aliciae._

Range.--Breeds from Labrador to Alaska; winters south to Central
America.

The nesting habits and eggs of this species are very similar to those o