Page:Ornithological biography, or an account of the habits of the birds of the United States of America, vol 2.djvu/570



Although this species spends the greater part of the yeai' in our most Eastern States, and in countries still farther north, many individuals remain in the mountainous districts of the Middle States, and breed there. In severe winters, it migrates as far south as the neighbourhood of the city of Natchez, on the Mississippi, where I have shot several and seen many more. In Kentucky it is not a rare bird at that season, but along the coasts of our southern States I have never met with it, nor have I heard of its having been seen there.

In spring and summer it retires from the low lands of the Middle States, to the mountainous districts, where it generally remains until autumn. About the 20th of April, the male and his mate are seen en- gaged in building their nest, in the covered and secluded parts of the forests. I found several of their nests placed on bushes not above ten feet from the ground, without any appearance of choice as to the tree, but generally towards the top, and placed in a fork. The nest is as large as that of the Robin, and is composed externally of coarse grasses, leaves and moss, internally of fibrous roots, over which is a bed of the feathers of the Wild Turkey and Pheasant (Tetrao uinbellus). The eggs are four or five, of a dull cinereous tint, thickly spotted and streaked with light brown towards the larger end. The period of incubation is fifteen days.

The young are at first of a dark bluish colour, but when they become covered with feathers, they assume a dull rufous tint above, and are transversely barred with zig-zag lines from the throat to the abdomen. In this State they remain until late in autumn, and might seem to one not acquainted with them to be of a different species. They remain with their parents all that time, and not unfrequently even during winter" Caterpillars, spiders and insects of various kinds form their first food, to- gether with small fruits ; but as they grow up, their parents bring them the flesh of small birds, on which they feed greedily even before they leave the nest.