ern breeding-limit, though Mr. Minot found a nest in northern New Hampshire.
Dr. Cones says that it is remarkable for its quaint and curious song. I have never heard its best musical efforts, for its notes seem to me harsh, like the familiar call of the Ovenbird.
Ovenbird; Golden-crowned Thrush: Seiurus aurocapillus.
Plate 17. Fig. 1.
Length: 6.75-6.50 inches.
Male and Female: Olive-green above, white eye ring, two brown stripes on head, enclosing an orange crown. White below, with brownish spots in the centre of breast running into streaks on the sides. Brown bill, legs and feet flesh—coloured.
Song: Call note, “Teacher-teacher-teacher!" given in gradual crescendo. The love-song liquid like that of the Water Thrush, but seldom heard.
Season: May to October.
Breeds: Northward from Kansas, the Ohio Valley, and Virginia.
Nest: A ball of leaves and grasses on the ground with a side opening, hence the name Ovenbird, though the nest bears a closer resemblance to the earth huts the Italian labourers build.
Eggs: 4, cream-white, specked with brown-purple.
Range: Eastern North America, north to Hudson's Bay Territory and Alaska; in winter southern Florida, the West Indies, and Central America.
With the Ground Warblers we come again to birds with musical voices, who, even if they do wear more sober plumage, are a welcome change from the lisping prettiness of the previous groups.
If you wish to identify the Ovenbird, or Golden-crowned Thrush, as he is still called, you must trust to sound rather than sight, for you will hear far oftener than see him. On his arrival in the early part of May, he comes familiarly about the garden, sometimes in company with the Veery, and spends a week, perhaps, among the shrubs and evergreens, running out on the ground occasionally, with an alert air, as if looking for his mate.
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