instantly repeated by another, responding from the uncertain shadows in the distances beyond.
His beautiful crescendo, begun so low and soft as to seem far away, and swelling upward:
progressively and evenly into its rounded sweetness and fullness, till he seems to be near enough
to touch, yet all the time unseen, may well secure an appreciation of his powers to one for:
comparisons. This characteristic is a keynote to his identity while yet undiscovered, as the song
of the Wood-Thrush is diametrically opposite in being equally perfect diminuendo.”
The nesting of the species is thus described by Dr. Brewer in the ‘History of North American
Birds :—“ The nest of this Thrush is always built on the ground, most generally either under low
bushes or in the open ground, rarely, if ever, among thick trees, and for the most part in low swampy
places. Both nest and eggs closely resemble those of Wilson’s Thrush (T. fuscescens). In Parsboro’,
Nova Scotia, I found one of the nests built in the very midst of the village, close to a dwelling,
though on a spot so marshy as to be unapproachable. The nests are 3 inches in height and 5 in
diameter, with a cavity 3^ inches wide by 1^ deep. They are composed of decayed deciduous leaves,
remnahts of dried plants, sedges, and grasses, intermingled with twigs, and lined with finer grasses,
sedges, and strips of bark. The eggs are of a uniform bluish-green colour, and range in length
from -88 to -94, with an average of *63 of an inch.” Mr. Brewster states that near Winchendon,
Mass., he found the species abundant in summer, haunting by preference dry, rather than open,
white-pine woods (Auk, v. p. 389). That the species occasionally varies its habit of nesting on the
ground is evident from a note of Mr. Batchelder’s, as he found a nest at Grand Palls on May 30 in
a small fir-tree, about three feet from the ground. In Northern Elk Co., Pennsylvania, Mr. Baily
has found nests on mossy banks by the side of the road. Dr. Merrill, in his “ Notes from Maine ”
(Bull. Nutt. Orn. Club, vii. p. 190), w r i t e s “ Their eggs are usually taken in June, but I find
among my notes the record of a set taken August, 1873, at Dedham, Maine, the eggs being but
slightly incubated. This would seem to be presumptive evidence for the belief that these birds
raise two broods in a season.”
Ih e following note is from Dr. Coues’s ‘ Birds of the Colorado Valley ’ :—“ How quietly and
with what solicitude for privacy the nesting of the Hermit-Thrush is accomplished! Such care is
taken to conceal its nest in the recesses of tangled undergrowth that few are the ornithologists who
have found it. I f Wilson, Nuttall, or Audubon ever saw a nest, no one' of them recognized its
owner. The nests and eggs which they describe as those of the Hermit were certainly those of
the Olive-backed Thrush, the only one which nests at any considerable distance from the ground
and lays spotted eggs. And unless the Hermit has changed its choice of a summer home since
Wilson and Audubon thought they had discovered its nest, it never bred in the southerly regions
where they thought it did. But their mistake was not unnatural, since, singularly enough, neither
of these ornithologists knew the difference between the Olive-backed and the Hermit Thrush—-
a distinction erroneously said by Dr. Brewer to have been first suggested by Professor Baird in
1844, as Swainson had discriminated the two with perfect accuracy, though under wrong names,
in 1831. The manner in which the nest of the Hermit-Thrush is built, its situation, and the
eggs are all so similar to the Veery’s that one must detect the shy parents themselves before
being sure which has been found. The nest is built on the ground or near it, generally in some
low. Secluded spot; no mud is used in its composition, the whole fabric being a rather rude and
inartistic matting of withered leaves, weed-stalks, bark-strips, and grasses—the coarser and stiffer
substances outside, the finer fibres within. The cup is small in comparison with the whole size,
owing to the thickness of the walls and of the base. The eggs are like, those of the Robiu or
Wood-Thrush, in their uniform greenish-blue colour, but smaller, measuring about nine-tenths
of an inch in length by five-eighths in breadth; being thus not distinguishable from those of
the Veery. I have never known of an instance, to my recollection, of the eggs being spotted;
but so many birds which usually lay whole-coloured bluish eggs occasionally drop a set which
are somewhat speckled, that I should not be surprised to find at any time a Hermit-Thrush’s egg
showing a few specks about the larger end.”
Adult male in summer plumage. General colour above dull reddish-brown, with a greyish
shade; the upper tail-coverts and tail dull rufous, contrasting with the back, the aspect of the
tail being decidedly chestnut; wing-coverts like the back, the greater series a little more ruddy
on the edges; primary-coverts dusky brown, with rusty margins not reaching quite to the tip s;
quills dusky brown, with rusty margins, paler and more conspicuous on the primaries; crown
of head scarcely any darker than the mantle; lores and eyelid buffy white; feathers below the
eye and ear-coverts dusky brown, with narrow buff shaft-lines; cheeks buff, with small dusky
cross markings ; sides of neck like the back, but mottled with small buff s p o t s a distinct malar
line of black, forming a moustache; under surface of body dull white, the throat and chest pale
ochreous-buff, spotted on the sides and centre with distinct triangular spots of brownish-black,
very large and pronounced on the chest; the breast rather greyer and mottled with more indistinct
spots of dusky brown; the abdomen and under tail-coverts white; sides of body, flanks, and thighs
dark ashy grey with a faint tinge of brown; axillaries fulvous, dusky internally, and inclining to
orange-buff at the ends; wing-coverts buffy-white, the lower ones dark brown, forming a patch, which
contrasts with the orange-buff basal band across the base of the quills. Total length 6*7 inches,
culmen 0#6, wing 3-9, tail 2*8, tarsus T2.
Adult female. Similar to the male. Total length 6'4 inches, culmen 0‘65, wing 3’5, tail 2*55,
tarsus 1*05.
. Adult in winter. More decidedly rufous than in summer on the upper parts, the wings and
tail also .deeper and more chestnut; the sides of the face and cheeks, throat and breast more
pervaded with buff, as are also the under tail-coverts; the sides of the body incline to ochreous-
brown.
Young. Rather more rufous than the adults, and mottled all over with longitudinal spots of
ochreous-buff, margined with black; the throat and chest buff, thickly spotted with black, the
breast and sides of the body having dusky bars at the ends of the feathers.
The figure in the Plate is drawn from a Pennsylvanian specimen in the Seebohm Collection,
and the descriptions have been taken from the series of skins in the British Museum.
[R. B. S.] ,