Catharus fuscescens
Order Passeriformes
Family Turdidae
Other names: Wilsons’s Thrush
Adult.— Upper parts brown, with a distinct, though often not a strong, tawny tinge; under parts white; breast and sides of throat washed with yellowish-brown, lightly spotted with tawny-brown.
Nest, on or near the ground, in wet woods.
Eggs, greenish-blue.
The Veery is a common summer resident all through New York and New England, wherever the ground is moist and there are trees. On the higher mountains it rarely ascends above a level of 1500 feet, and in northern New England is not common away from the river valleys. It comes in early May, but does not sing for a week or ten days after its arrival; then it sings freely till July. During August it is rarely seen, and probably leaves during that month or early in September. It may often be seen feeding in any shaded road that passes through its haunts, its quick run suggesting the Robin.
The song of this thrush, from which one of its names is derived, consists of three or four phrases, the last two lower than the preceding and ending with a strong vibrating chord, suggesting a sound muffled by a tube. The song proceeds from the recesses of swampy woodland, or ceasing, is followed by a low sharp phew or a higher phee-oo, which in turn may be subdued or softened or varied in tone.
The Veery’s buffy, comparatively unspotted breast, and its tawny head, back, and tail, distinguish it from the other thrushes. The Brown Thrush, so called, or Brown Thrasher, has white under parts heavily spotted with black.
Hoffmann – A Guide to the Birds of New England and Eastern New York (1904)