34^ 



INSECTIVOROUS BIRDS. 



In the Middle States this species is only seen for a 

 few weeks in the spring and fall. They arrive in this 

 part of New England about the 10th of April, and dis- 

 perse to pass the summer in the seclusion of the forest. 

 They are often seen on the ground in quest of their food, 

 and frequent low and thick copses, into which they com- 

 monly fly for concealment when too attentively observed ; 

 though when in small companies, in the spring season, 

 they do not appear very shy, but restless, from the 

 unsettled state of their circumstances. When dispersed, 

 they utter alow, chirping call, and for some time continue 

 to frequent the same secluded part of the forest in soci- 

 ety. At times, like the Wagtail, they keep this part of 

 their body in a slow, vertical motion. In manners it 

 strongly resembles the following species ; but its song 

 seems to be unusually lively and varied, warbling almost 

 like the Yellow Bird, and then chanting like the Robin. 

 In Lower Louisiana, they are said to raise two broods in 

 the season. 



The length of the Hermit Thrush is about 7^ inches ; alar extent lOi. 

 Above, plain deep olive-brown. Below, dull white ; upper part of the 

 breast and throat of a delicate cream color, inclining to nankeen ; the 

 dusky brown pencillated spots carried over the breast and under the 

 wings where the sides are pale olive ; 3d primary longest, inner webs 

 inclinincr to dusky, the outer nearly as rufous as the tail ; on the inner 

 webs of the secondaries a large oval spot of bright nankeen color. 

 Tail and coverts, as well as the wings, strongly tinged with rufous. 

 Legs pale flesh-color, the tarsus very long. Bill black above the 

 lower mandible, flesh-colored below. Iris nearly black, and large. — 

 T^he female darker, and with the spots on the breast larger and more 

 dusky. 



Note. The Brown Thrush of Pennant and Latham agrees pretty 

 nearly with the Hermit Thrush (T. soUtarius) of Wilson, and dif- 

 fers, in several important particulars, with the bird of this article. 

 The bird of Wilson's figure, if correctly done, I have never seen 

 in Massachusetts. 



