HERMIT THRUSH. 205 



HERMIT THRUSH. 



SWAMP ROBIN. 

 TURDUS AONALASCHK^ PALLASII. 



Char. Above, olive brown or russet, shading to rufous on rump and 

 tail ; beneath buffish, shaded with olive on sides ; throat and breast 

 marked with olive wedge-shaped spots. Length 6j^ to j}i inches. 



iVest. On the ground, loosely made of leaves, grass, and moss. 



Eggs. 3-5 ; greenish blue ; 0.85 X 0.65. 



This species, so much Uke the Nightingale in color, is scarce 

 inferior to that celebrated bird in its powers of song, and 

 greatly exceeds the Wood Thrush in the melody and sweetness 

 of its lay. It inhabits the United States from the lofty alpine 

 mountains of New Hampshire to Florida. It is also met with 

 on the tableland of Mexico and in the warmer climate of the 

 Antilles. In Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New England, at 

 the close of autumn, it appears to migrate eastward to the sea- 

 coast in quest of the winter berries on which it now feeds ; in 

 spring and summer it lives chiefly on insects and their larvae, 

 and also collects the surviving berries of the Mitchella repens. 



Like the preceding species, it appears to court solitude, and 

 lives wholly in the woods. In the Southern States, where it 

 inhabits the whole year, it frequents the dark and desolate 

 shades of the cane swamps. In these almost Stygian regions, 

 which, besides being cool, abound probably with its favorite 

 insect food, we are nearly sure to meet our sweetly vocal 

 hermit flitting through the settled gloom, which the brightest 

 rays of noon scarcely illumine with more than twilight. In one 

 of such swamps, in the Choctaw nation, Wilson examined a 

 nest of this species which was fixed on the horizontal branch 

 of a tree, formed with great neatness and without using any 

 plastering of mud. The outside was made of a layer of coarse 

 grass, having the roots attached, and intermixed with horse- 

 hair ; the lining consisted of green filiform blades of dry grass 

 very neatly wound about the interior. 



In the Middle States these birds are only seen for a few 



