MONTEREY HERMIT THRUSH 133 



immediate coast district" in the San Francisco Bay region. It 

 "adheres closely to the denser redwood growths on shaded slopes and 

 in canyon bottoms." 



Harry H. Sheldon (1908) says of a locality where he found it in 

 Sonoma County: "In June of 1904 the writer made a collecting trip 

 to the South Fork of the Gualala River, a small stream about forty 

 feet in width slowly winding itself down a deep thickly wooded can- 

 yon. Its banks are bordered with a dense growth of huckleberry, 

 and at their extreme edge the sweet azalea grows in myriads from a 

 tangle of various ferns and lilies. In such places as this the Monterey 

 Hermit Thrush (Hylocichla guttata slevini) makes his summer home." 



Migration. — Harry S. Swarth (1904) records the Monterey hermit 

 thrush as a migrant only in Arizona, and remarks: 



At first it seems strange to find a bird belonging so decidedly to the Pacific 

 Coast wandering as far as eastern Arizona, but when we consider that such species 

 as the Hermit and Townsend Warblers, Cassin Vireo, and others, pass regularly 

 through this region, it is evident that there is a regular line of migration from the 

 Pacific Coast to the southeast, in spite of the formidable deserts that intervene, 

 and might be expected to form an utterly impassable barrier. 



I believe slevini to be a fairly common migrant in the Huachucas, though but 

 few specimens were secured, for it is an extremely shy bird, and from the nature 

 of the ground frequented, exceedingly difficult even to get sight of. Auduboni 

 was found mostly in the pine woods, and guttata along the canyons, but slevini 

 seemed to prefer the dense thickets covering the steep, dry, hillsides, an unpleasant 

 place to travel in at any time, and almost hopeless ground in which to pursue a 

 shy, secretive bird like the present species. The specimens secured were, a male 

 shot on March 9, 1903, and two females taken on May 8th, and another on April 

 19, 1902. 



Nesting. — In the locality mentioned above, Mr. Sheldon (1908) 

 found several nests of the Monterey hermit thrush, with eggs or young 

 or under construction. One was "in a clump of branches of an oak 

 tree about eight feet from the ground above the stream"; the bird was 

 working on this nest on May 27, but it was never completed. On 

 May 30 he found another nest, "placed in the shoots of an alder on 

 the bank of the river, and like our previous experience the bird saw 

 us and the nest was abandoned." A nest previously located in process 

 of construction was visited on June 3 and found to contain a complete 

 set of three eggs. "This nest was placed in a bush of huckleberry on 

 the edge of the stream three feet from the creek bed. It was com- 

 posed of chips of dead wood, small branches of huckleberry, dead 

 leaves and twigs, and held together with mosses and rootlets. The 

 lining consisted of fine redwood bark, fibers, fine rootlets and the 

 remains of dead leaves. * * * All nests found were placed from 

 two to eight feet from the ground, their favorite nesting site being in 

 patches of huckleberry and in all cases situated close to the stream." 



Robert R. Talmadge gives me this description of two nests: "The 



