Page:The Overland Monthly, Jan-June 1894.djvu/269



1894.

A Forest Songster of Western Washington.

205

A low call less often heard than this sounds like, " bdk, ye-e-e-e " ; the bah being a clear and rather round note ; the ye-e-e-e, a low, metallic trill, resem- bling, in that way, the last part of the song of the varied thrush. This call is given only, apparently, when the object of affection is supposed to be near by, the whistle, quoit, having already drawn the two birds together.

There is a short, quick alarm-note, "whit, whit" or " wit, wit," generally at once answered by several companions not in sight.

Most of the time the bird spends up- on the ground or near it. Probably its diet of insects and worms is often varied by a few berries, such as the salmon- berry, for in these thickets it appears to be most abundant.

Like many of our best songsters the russet-backed thrush is not clad in strik- ing colors ; above, " being uniformly a russet-olive ; below, white ; the neck, breast, and sides of its head are strong- ly yellowish-tinged," much and delicate- ly spotted with olive-gray. Around the eye is a buff ring.

The nest, comfortably made, mostly of the common gray forest moss, is often built upon a loose framework of coarse straw, and finer dried grass, and in the bottom are a few layers of matted leaves, such as those of the vine-maple.

One found on the Humptulips, July second, was built in the center of a dark green forest fern, whose high-arched ra- diating fronds pretty well hid it till one stood over it. Another there was in the forks of a vine-maple, about seven feet from the ground. Each held fresh eggs. Usually from four or five eggs are laid,

of a greenish blue color, well spotted with several shades of brown.

Through June, showers are apt to be frequent on the upper waters of the Humptulips ; and running down the swollen river at such times, in the risky, shovel-nosed canoe, is a series of excit- ing adventures, even with a skillful Si- wash in bow and stern. After a furious rush down a series of wild cascades, the canoe may float sluggishly along the edge of a quiet pool, where a salmon or sturgeon is spied by one of the big- faced natives, and quickly speared. Along a quiet reach of the river a shot may be chanced at a mallard whirring over, or at a flock of young sheldrakes, wildly spattering on ahead. Awhile one lazily watches the tree-tops drift across the sky, while resting back on the packs, the Indians deftly steering or plying paddle meanwhile, or on a likely bar the canoe is beached, and all eagerly search for freshest signs of elk, or deer or bear.

Spattering showers, which came at first, have ceased. A clear sky greets us, as the harbor opens out beyond the last big trees ; and here a safer canoe is taken, or a skiff or sail-boat, if at hand and the tide in, for a distant harbor town. A. lovely nightfall is recalled, once rowing onward ; the smooth, wide bay almost unruffled, save where stirred here and there into little tripping wave- lets by trifling currents of air or water. Far northward, over the vast green bulk of forests, the pure, snowy crests of the Olympics were visible till day was gone. Then the tender and peaceful evening stole on with topaz sky, reddish even- glow, peacock-tinted, glinting waters, and pure, twinkling stars.

R. H. Laivretice.