Here are the woods that abound in moss-bunches,—great balls of thrifty green which grow, without apparent excuse, alike from the flimsiest and from the most substantial supports. It is in view of the abundance of these, that the Varied Thrush builds as it does, right out in the open of the underwood, near the top, or at least well up, in a small fir tree. The searcher has only the advantage of knowing that in order to secure adequate support the bird must build close up to the stem of the tree. The only exception to this rule is when branches intersect, and so offer additional strength. Owing to the fact that the large timber affords considerable protection to the younger growth below, and because of the superior construction of the nests, they prove very durable. Old nests are common; and groups of half a dozen in the space of a single acre are evidently the consecutive product of a single pair of birds.
There is a notable division of territory among these Thrushes. As a rule, they maintain a distance of half a mile or so from any other nesting pair. In two instances, however, Mr. Brown found nests within three hundred yards of neighbors.
When one approaches the center of a reserve, the brooding female slips quietly from the nest and joins her mate in denouncing the intruder. The birds flit restlessly from branch to branch, or from log to log, uttering repeatedly a stern tsook, which is almost their sole recourse. If the nest is discovered and examined, the birds will disappear silently; and the chances are that they will never again be seen in that locality.
Taken at Glacier. Photo by the Author.
NEST AND EGGS OF VARIED THRUSH.
A nest found on May 10th, with two eggs, was revisited on the 12th. It was saddled at a point ten feet out on a leaning hemlock, which jutted from the river bank over the roaring Nooksack. The prominence of the situation, in this instance, proved the owner’s undoing. An Owl had evidently snatched her up on the previous night, the first of her maternal duty; for the nest and the neighboring foliage were strewn with feathers. Yet so subtly had the marauder executed his first coup that not an egg was broken. The eggs were three in number, subovate, of a slightly greenish blue, beautifully and heavily spotted—one might almost say blotched—with rufous, the handsomest, Mr. Brown says, ever seen.
A more typical nest, freshly examined, is placed at a height of six feet in the top of a tiny fir sapling, which required the support of a chance armful of leaning vine-maple poles. The nest proper is an immense affair, eight and a half inches deep and twelve inches by eight in diameter outside, and two and a half in depth and four in width inside. It would weigh about three pounds, and is, therefore, quite compact, altho the moss, which is the largest element in its composition, holds a large quantity of moisture. Twigs from six inches to a foot in length enter into the exterior construction, and these are themselves moss-bearing. Stripping off the outer moss-coat, one comes to the matrix or crucible-shaped vessel of rotten wood, an inch or more in thickness thruout, and sodden with moisture. Within this receptacle, in turn, appears another cup with walls three-quarters of an inch in thickness, and composed solely of dried grasses and moss, neatly woven and turned. The innermost lining comprises the same materials, not very carefully smoothed, but amazingly dry, considering the character of their surroundings. The brim of the nest is strengthened by bark-strips, the inner fiber of cedar bark being exclusively employed for this purpose; while the finishing coat consists of moss, compacted and flawless. There are, in fact, few nests to compare with that of the Varied Thrush in strength, elaborateness, and elegance.
No. 101.
WESTERN BLUEBIRD.
A. O. U. No. 767. Sialia mexicana occidentalis (Towns.).
Synonyms.—California Bluebird. Mexican Bluebird. Townsend’s Bluebird.
Description.—Adult male: Head and neck all around and upperparts rich smalt blue, brighter on hindneck, rump and wings, paler on sides of neck and on throat; the shafts of wing-quills and tail-feathers and the exposed tips of the former black; more or less chestnut on scapulars usually irregularly continuous across back; sides of breast and sides, continuous across breast, chestnut; belly, flanks, crissum and under tail-coverts dull grayish blue (campanula blue to pearl blue). Bill black; feet blackish; iris dark brown. In winter touches of chestnut appear on crown, hindneck and sides of head and neck, and the blue of throat is slightly veiled by grayish brown skirting. Adult female: Somewhat like male but everywhere paler and duller; blue of upperparts clear only on rump, tail, lesser and middle wing-coverts and outer edges of primaries, there lighter than in male (campanula blue to flax-flower blue); first primary and outermost rectrices edged with white; chestnut of scapulars obsolete, merged with dingy mottled bluish or brownish-gray of remaining upperparts; exposed tips of remiges dusky; outer web of first primary whitish; blue of underparts replaced by sordid bluish gray, and chestnut of subdued tone (pale cinnamon-rufous) veiled by grayish-brown tips of feathers. Young birds somewhat resemble the adult female but the blue is restricted to flight-feathers and rectrices, that of the male being brighter and bluer, that of the female duller and greener. In both sexes the back and scapular areas are brownish heavily and sharply streaked with white and the breast (jugulum, sides of breast, and sides) is dark sepia brown so heavily streaked with white as to appear “skeletonized.” Length of adults 6.50-7.00 (165-177.8); wing 4.13 (105); tail 2.80 (71); bill .49 (12.5); tarsus .85 (21.5).
Recognition Marks.—Sparrow size; rich blue and chestnut coloring of male; darker blue coloration of wings in female distinctive as compared with that of S. currucoides.
Nesting.—Nest: in cavities, natural or artificial, old woodpecker holes, hollow trees, stumps, posts, bird-boxes, etc., lined with grasses and, occasionally, string, feathers and the like. Eggs: 4-6, uniform pale blue. Av. size, .82 × .62 (20.8 × 15.7). Season: May-July; two broods.
General Range.—Pacific coast district from Los Angeles County, California, to British Columbia, extending irregularly eastward in Oregon, Washington and British Columbia, and to Idaho and western Montana; south irregularly in winter as far as San Pedro Martir Mountains, L. C.
Range in Washington.—Summer resident, of general distribution west of the Cascades, rare and local distribution (chiefly in heavily timbered sections) east of the mountains; casually resident in winter.
Migrations.—Spring: c. March 1; East-side: Chelan, March 9, 1896; Conconnully, March 15, 1896; West-side: Seattle, March 6, 1889; March 5, 1891; Tacoma, Feb. 25, 1905. Fall: October.
Authorities.—Sialia occidentalis, Townsend, Journ. Ac. Nat. Sci. Phila. Vol. VII. pt. II. 1837, 188. C&S. L¹. Rh. D¹. Kb. Ra. D². Kk. J. B. E.
Specimens.—U. of W. Prov. B. BN.
Miu-Miu-Miu—mute you are, or next thing to it, you naughty little beauties! Why don’t you sing, as do your cousins across the Rockies? You bring spring with you, but you do not come shifting your “light load of song from post to post along the cheerless fence.” Is your beauty, then, so burdensome that you find it task enough to shift that?