LAND BIRDS. 721 



of three fresh eggs in Ottawa county May 20, 1879, taking the female for 

 positive identification. There is a nest and three eggs in the Agricultural 

 College collection taken by Gunn and Gibbs, marked Ottawa county, 

 May 31, 1879, possibly the same nest. Dr. Gibbs found the species in 

 Montcalm county, near Howard City, where he took a nest June 10, 1882 

 and was satisfied that they nested in abundance. Dr. R. H. Wolcott 

 found it common at Charlevoix in dense pine woods where it was un- 

 doubtedly breeding. The writer found it nesting in Emmet county in 

 the summer of 1904, and it was abundant and in full song on the Beaver 

 Islands, Lake Michigan, in July of the same year. S. E. White states that 

 it is an abundant summer resident on Mackinac Island, Lake Huron, 

 and Dr. W. H. Dunham took a nest and three eggs near Spencer, Kalkaska 

 county June 5, 1906, but does not consider it common in that vicinity. 



Throughout the Upper Peninsula it appears to be a common nester, 

 although Mr. E. E. Brewster of Iron Mountain, Dickinson county, states 

 that he has never found it nesting there, and does not think it is a summer 

 resident. Mr. Ed Van Winkle of Vans Harbor, Delta county, states that 

 it breeds there, and we have numerous reports of its nesting in Marquette 

 county, Alger county, Chippewa county, and Mackinac county. Mr. 

 T. B. Wyman found a nest and four fresh eggs at Negaunee, Marquette 

 county, July 7, 1905, and Mr. E. O. DooHttle found nests with eggs from 

 June 13 to 24, 1905 in Baraga and Marquette counties. The occurrence 

 of fresh eggs on July 7 makes it likely that the species occasionally rears 

 a second brood. 



In habits the Hermit Thrush is much Hke the Ohve-back, and although 

 during migration they are by no means shy, during the nesting season 

 they are extremely wary and suspicious, and it is difficult to approach 

 within gun shot while they are singing. The Hermit Thrush obtains 

 most of its food from the ground and its nest is invariably placed upon 

 the ground or close to it, but when singing it often selects a perch thirty 

 to fifty feet high and sings for an hour at a time from this point. In 

 common with several of its relatives the Hermit has the habit of hfting 

 the tail suddenly and allowing it to sink slowly down again, to be quickly 

 lifted an instant later, this being repeated over and over again, while the 

 bird utters a low chuck from time to time, which is rather characteristic 

 although not widely different from that used by the Olive-back. 



The song has been so often described that most readers are familiar 

 with it. Mr. Burroughs says: "It is to me the finest sound in nature." 

 Spencer Trotter says: "The Hermit's song appealed to me as a sustained 

 melody throughout; as though the musician had the ear to appreciate 

 as well as the power to express. * * * The alarm note has a catbird 

 c[uality about it, lower pitched and less metallic than that of the Olive- 

 backed Thrush" (Auk. XXI, 63-64). Bicknell says: "The call-note 

 of the Hermit Thrush is very different from that of any other species of 

 its group which occurs with us. It is a low chuck, suggestive of the note 

 of a distant blackbird (Auk, 1, 131). Dr. Coues says of the song "The 

 weird associations of the spot where the Hermit triumphs, the mystery 

 inseparable from the voice of an unseen musician, conspire to heighten 

 the effect of the sweet, silvery, bell-like notes, which, beginning soft, low 

 and tinkling, rise higher and higher to end abiuptly with a clear, ringing 

 intonation. It is the i-everse of the lay of the Wood Thrush, which swells 

 at once into powerful and sustained effort, then gratlually dies away, 

 as though the bird were receding from us." 

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