I 



THE HERMIT THRUSH. 491 



tail of the migration of its family, it is scarcely to be looked 

 for in Western New York till the middle or latter part of 

 May, and Audubon found the eggs of the species in Labra- 

 dor as late as the middle of July. But if the Black-poll 

 seems to be a laggard, let it be remembered that it is a great 

 traveler. Wintering in Central America and the West In- 

 dies, and traveling, perhaps, largely at sea, it does not slacken 

 its migrations till it reaches the oceanic islands off north- 

 eastern Maine and Nova Scotia; and breeding commonly in 

 Labrador, it extends even to Alaska and the Arctic Ocean. 

 Nebraska seems to be about its western limit. 



THE HERMIT THRUSH. 



One of the most charming items to a naturalist, visiting 

 Northern New England or the Maritime Provinces in 

 spring, is the song of the Hermit Thrush {Turdus pailasi). 

 I reached Paradise, in the Annapolis Valley, Nova Scotia, 

 during the night, and, early the next morning climbed the 

 South Mountain to listen to the birds. It was the beau- 

 tiful morning of the second of June, 1883. As I passed 

 through a swampy tract of alders, on nearing the foot of 

 the mountain, I was greeted with the divine song of the 

 Hermit. It had been familiar to me in the days of child- 

 hood, and I had often recalled the unutterably sacred feel- 

 ings it used to awaken; but never during the many years of 

 my ornithological studies had I heard it, though I was quite 

 familiar with the bird in its migrations. Stimulated by 

 anticipation, and with a vague conception formed from the 

 descriptions of authors, and the analogous songs of other 

 Thrushes, I was prepared for the happiest impression. It 

 was a moment never to be forgotten. The song begins 

 with a note not unlike the vowel O, passing through several 

 intervals of the musical scale in a smooth, upward slide, and 



