This bird, and indeed all of this genus, have the peculiar vibratory motions of the tail noticed in the Wagtail of Europe, and also observed in our own Red-poll Warbler, and in the Titlarks. In consequence of these peculiarities this species is known, in Jamaica, as Land Kickup, and the noveboracensis as the Water Kickup. Mr. Gosse found in its stomach gravel, various seeds, mud-insects, caterpillars, and small turbinate shells.
The usual and more common song of this species is a very peculiar and striking one, unlike that of any other of our birds. It is said to somewhat resemble the song of the Accentor modularis of Europe. It is loud and clear, enunciated with great rapidity, and uttered with great emphasis at its close.
It is characterized by energy and power, rather than variety or sweetness, yet it is not unpleasing. Audubon calls it a “simple lay,” and again “a short succession of simple notes,”—expressions that would give one who had never heard its song an altogether incorrect idea of its true character. Wilson is still more in error when he states that this bird has no song, but an energetic twitter, when, in fact, it has two very distinct songs, each in its way remarkable. Nuttall describes its song as “a simple, long, reiterated note, rising from low to high, and shrill”; Richardson speaks of it as “a loud, clear, and remarkably pleasing ditty”; and Mr. Allen calls it “a loud, echoing song, heard everywhere in the deep woods.” In reference to the songs of this bird, and the injustice that has been done by writers to this and other species of our birds, Mr. Boardman of St. Stephen has written me the following just observations.
“Many of our common Warblers, Thrushes, and other birds, have rare songs they reserve for some extra occasions, and many of our common birds do not get credit for half their real power of song. Once last spring, as I was watching for some birds, I heard a new and very pretty warble, something like the trill of a Winter Wren, and found that it came from our common slate-colored Snowbird (Junco hyemalis), a bird that I see every day that I go to the woods, and yet these notes I had never heard before. It is the same with the Golden-crowned Thrush. When it gets into the top of a tall tree, its strain is so rare and beautiful that but few know it as from that bird. The same is true of the Water Thrush, and also of both Turdus pallasi and Turdus swainsoni.”
The Oven-Bird always nests on the ground, and generally constructs nests with arched or domed roofs, with an entrance on one side, like the mouth of an oven, and hence its common name. This arched covering is not, however, universal. For a site this species usually selects the wooded slope of a hill, and the nests are usually sunk in the ground. When placed under the shelter of a projecting root, or in a thick clump of bushes, the nest has no other cover than a few loose leaves resting on, but forming no part of it.
A nest from Racine, Wis., obtained by Dr. Hoy, is a fine typical specimen of the domed nests of this species. The roof is very perfect, and the whole presents the appearance of two shallow nests united at the rim, and leaving only a small opening at one side. This nest was five inches in diameter from front to back, six inches from side to side, and four inches high. The opening was two and a quarter inches wide, one and three quarters high. The cavity was two inches deep, below the brim. At the entrance the roof recedes about an inch, obviously to allow of a freer entrance and exit from the nest. Externally this nest is made of wood, mosses, lichens, and dry leaves, with a few stems and broken fragments of plants. The entrance is strongly built of stout twigs, and its upper portion is composed of a strong framework of fine twigs, roots, stems, mosses, dry plants, etc., all firmly interwoven, and lined with finer materials of the same.
On the 7th of June, 1858, I came accidentally upon a nest of this bird of a very different style of structure. It was in a thick wood in Hingham. The nest was built in a depression in the ground at the foot of some low bushes, and its top was completely covered by surrounding vines and wild flowers. It would probably have escaped notice had not my daughter, then a child of four years, attempted to gather some wild flowers growing directly over its entrance. This flushed the mother, who until then had remained quiet, although we were standing with our feet almost upon the nest, and the bird fluttered and tumbled about at our feet with well-feigned manœuvres to distract our attention. The child in great glee sought to catch it, but it eluded her grasp, and, running off like a mouse, disappeared. The nest contained six eggs, was entirely open, and with no other cover than the wild plants that clustered above it. As to its identity there was no doubt, as the parent was afterwards snared upon its nest. This nest was somewhat loosely constructed of skeleton leaves, dry slender stalks, grasses, and pine-needles, and was lined with a few slender grasses and leaves. It had a diameter of six inches, and was two and a half inches deep. The cup had a diameter of three and a half inches and a depth of two, being very large for the size of the bird, probably owing to the shape of the cavity in which it was sunk.
The nest of this bird seems to be a favorite place of resort for the Cow Blackbird to deposit its egg. In one nest, found by Mr. Vickary in Lynn, no less than three eggs of these parasites had been placed.
The eggs of the Golden-crowned Thrush are subject to considerable variations. Their markings differ in their colors and shades, and yet more in number, size, and manner of distribution. The eggs are oval in shape, one end being but very slightly smaller than the other. Their average length is .82 of an inch, and their breadth is .55 of an inch. Their ground-color is a beautiful creamy-white. They are marked, usually principally about the larger end, with dots and blotches, intermingled, of red, reddish-brown, lilac, darker purple, and ferruginous. Occasionally these make a beautiful crown around the larger end, leaving the rest of the surface nearly free from spots.
Seiurus noveboracensis, Nutt.