of the song without the prelude. They were so excessively shy that it was some time before I
actually identified the song as belonging to th is’ bird. Usually long before getting within
anything like shooting distance the notes would cease, and while vainly endeavouring to catch
a glimpse of the shy performer through the dense foliage above, suddenly his mocking call-note
would come from some impenetrable thicket near by. Its range of altitude during the breeding-
season is from 4200 to 5000 feet.”
Mr. Dwight in his paper on the “ Summer Birds'of Prince Edward Island,” writes :—“ Very
abundant. They are usually excessively shy and difficult to obtain, although several may be
singing within hearing at the same time. They frequent thick growths of spruces, and from
some commanding perch pour forth their rich song. I f they become aware of your approach
even a gunshot or more away, they dive down into the dense undergrowth, and a few soft alarm-
notes are the last you hear of them. Squeaking to them will bring them to you for one brief
look, which satisfies them, but not you, for they generally see you first and at close range.
Sometimes they sing in the thickets of spruces, but are more apt to have a particular perch,
perhaps on some towering dead tree. I heard no songs that I had any reason to suppose
were other than true T. swainsonii, for the possibility, of finding T. bicknelli or T. alicice had
to be kept constantly in mind. I found no young even up to the last day of my stay, but that
proves nothing with a bird so retiring. They sang more persistently and in greater numbers in the
early morning and late evening hours.”
Mr. Bicknell gives the following note on the song of this Thrush (Auk, i. p. 1 2 9 ) “ This
Thrush is in full song during its migration, which occupies the latter half or two-thirds of May,
but is commonly silent in the autumn. It is, however, probable that singing may be indulged
in at that season, for I was assured by one who was familiar with the song of the species, that
several were heard singing at Bay Ridge, Long Island, September 26, 1880, at the height of
their migration.
“ On their arrival in September the new plumage has not always completed its growth. In
many specimens growing feathers are scattered over the body and often some of the remiges have
their bases still soft, or even sheathed by the matrix of the feather. When the birds first
appear they have begun to develop adipose tissue, and it is not long before they become
excessively fat.”
Mr. Nelson writes:—“ A set of eggs was brought me in June 1878 from Nulato; they
measure respectively 0*89 x 0*65 and 0’9 4 x 0 ’67 inch. The ground-colour is blue, exactly like
the eggs of T. alicice, with scattered purplish shell-markings and fine specks of reddish-brown,
which latter are much more numerous at the larger end. The nest is composed of dried grass-stems
with a few fragments of moss, which are scattered through the structure as if by accident. The eggs
of this species and of T. alicice are absolutely indistinguishable, both in size and shape, as are also
the nests, according to the observations I have been able to make.”
The specimen figured in the Plate is an adult bird, from Pennsylvania, in the Seebohm
Collection. [R. B. S.]
TURDUS PALLASI, Cabanis.
EASTERN HERMIT-THRUSH.
Turdus solitarius {nec Linn.), Wilson, Amer. Orn. v. p. 95 (1812).
Turdus minor (nec Gm.), Bp. Journ. Philad. Acad. iv. p. 83 (1824).
Merula solitaria, Swains. & Richards. Faun. Bor.-Amer., Aves, p. 184 (1831), pi. xxxv. (err. pro
tab. xxxvii.).
Turdus nanus, Audub. Om. Biogr. v. p. 201, pi. 419 (1839). \Cf. Ridgw. Proc. U.S. Nat.
Mus. iii. p. 2 (1880).]
Turdus guttatns (nec Pall.), Cab. in Tschudi, Faun. Peruan. p. 187 (1845).
. Turdus pallasii, Cab. Arch. f. Naturg. 1847, p. 305.
Turdus guttatnspallasi, Ridgw. Orn. 40th Parallel, p. 395 (1877).
. Turdus [Hylocichla) pallasi, Coues, B. Colorado Valley, p. 20 (1878).
Turdus aonalaschkce pallasi, Ridgw. Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus. iii. p. 1 (1880)..
Hylocichla unalaschkce pallasi, Ridgw. Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus. iii. p. 166 (1880).
Turdus unalascce nanus, Coues, Check-1. N. Amer. B. p. 24 (1882).
Hylocichlapallasiy Stejneger, Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus. v. p. 463 (1883).
Turdus nanus, Bicknell, Auk, i. p. 131 (1884).
T. minor: remige secundo quintum haud sequante: supracaudalibus rectricibusque rufis, minimi dorso con-
coloribus: rostro crassiusculo: subalaribus pallide fulvis, axillaribus quoque externe pallide fulvescentibus
vel albidis.
T his constitutes the eastern race of the Hermit-Thrushes, and the range is given by Mr. Ridgway, in
his latest edition of the ‘ Manual of North American Birds,’ as follows:—“ Eastern North America,
breeding from the northern United States northward, and wintering from about 40° to the Gulf
Coast.” In Europe it is said to have occurred in Heligoland, in Germany, and in Italy.
The breeding-range of this Hermit-Thrush appears to extend over a wide area, for it has been
found nesting in British Columbia by Mr; Rhoads round Lake La Hache (Auk, x. p. 24). He
writes as follows :—“ The presence of this species breeding in the region around Lake La Hache,
British Columbia, as attested by four skins in my collection, further complicates the relationships of
this genus in the North-west. Neither T. auduboni nor T. pallasii were found in any other part of
British Columbia. I found T. aonalaschkce breeding in the Rocky Mountains at Field. It is
doubtful if T. auduboni reaches the forty-ninth parallel. If, as seems probable, it be found that
T. pallasii and T. aonalaschkce breed indifferently across common ground in the central and Rocky
Mountain regions of British Columbia, without the intervention of intergrades, a more definite
separation of the two is necessitated. Owing to the limited series obtained in evidence of this fact,
a satisfactory conclusion cannot now be reached. Two points at least are established: first, the
breeding of T. aonalaschkce in the Rocky Mountains; second, the breeding of T. pallasii west of the
Rockies and south of the fifty-second parallel.”
The single specimen in the British Museum from the 49th Parallel, obtained during the
Boundary Survey in 1873, is undoubtedly referable to T. pallasi, and the following note of Dr. Coues
(Bull. U.S. Geol. Survey, iv. p. 549) appertains to the same bird:—“ The Hermit-Thrush was not