Evening star., 1949-10-31
This and That
By Charles E. TraceweN


1t was thrush undoubtedly, but not
wood thrush.
It was fatter. with very little white on its
chest. and not so many spots.
Those it had were clustered just below the
chin as sort OF natural pendant
Though somehow lacking the ultra clean
look Of our common thrush, this bird was
very neat and very happy looking.
1t accentuated this happy look by its
actions.
Every now and then. as 1t went around
the yard. 1t would come to some overhang-
ing leaves Of shrubbery.
Then it would leap into the air, as If
grabbing at an insect, or better, leaping UP
just for the fun of it.
Sometimes these leaps were as much as
inches from the ground
Then the bird would 60 back to his more
sober pursuit of minutely scrutinizing the
grass.
1t was probably an olive-backed thrush
Evidently just going through. We had
seen 1t the day before in the pokeberry
plantation at the front Of the house.
Such plantation cannot be recon-
mended. but it does attract birds.
Almost all the migrating birds. Of which
this was one, like the pokeberries.
Such birds rustic through the brittle stalks
after the black-purple berries.
The olive-backed. like most thrushes. gets
most Of its animal food from the ground. It
picks through vegetation, leaves, grasses, for
beetles. ants. worms, small snails, etc.
Perhaps its leaps into the air to hanging
leaves were made after the smallest insects,
still alive through lack of frost at the time.
A scientist examined the stomach con-
tents OF two of the olive-backed thruShes
In May, and at that time found them to
contain ants wasps, ground beetles. darklng
beetles. and spiders.
The wood thrush stands out, among the
thrushes. because Of its immaculate clean
ness OF appearance secured because of its
fine white-gray chest and its neat black
spots.
All the thrushes look somewhat alike,
many think.
It is not too easy for the average bird
friend to tell an olive-backed from gray
checked thrush; and when veery gets into
the picture, we are likely to throw up our
hands, just as we may do over some Of the
lesser known sparrows; and when it comes
to the warblers. heaven help us!
The olive-backed thrush is sometimes
called Alma's thrush, just as the gray
checked one is also called Alice's thrush.
The olive-backed is something over 7
inches long, with a nice arching chest He
has a conspicuous eye ring.
One observer says the song which We
will not hear around here goes "gurgle
gurgle ting, chee chez chee," the usual odd
way Of putting down birds song. 50 that
it means little II anything except to the
person who has heard 1t.
This same observer clocked one olive
backed thrush at It's singing, and swore
that it sang 1850 times day.
He did not sing continuously.
Singing began early. at about am
this was In the North woods ended
about o'clock in the morning.
The next singing period was from noon
until 1880 in the afternoon, when the songs
increased and kept up until 1880 o'clock
in the evening.
Thrushes are world wide in distribution
and among their numbers is the famed
European nightingale.
Our robin Is really not robin as the
English think Of robins, but is actually
thrush, as the young robins show by the
spotted chest.
Thrushes molt once year. in the autumn.
Old points Of feathers are cast off in the
spring, and badly worn feathers replaced,
but there is no complete spring mott.
It Is interesting to know that young
thrushes, although they may just have re-
ceived their first feathers month or 10
earlier, have their first mott in their first
autumn.