132 BULLETIN 196, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



good description of the characteristic behavior of hermit thrushes in 

 general, which seems worth quoting: 



As one passes thru the woods in middle April while the vine maples are still 

 leafless, and the forest floor is not yet fully recovered from the brownness of the 

 rainy season, a moving shape, a little browner still, but scarcely outlined in the 

 uncertain light, starts up from the ground with a low chuck, and pauses for a 

 moment on a mossy log. Before you have made out definite characters, the bird 

 flits to a branch a little higher up and more removed, to stand motionless for a 

 minute or so, or else to chuckle softly with each twinkle of the ready wings. By 

 following quietly one may put the bird to a dozen short flights without once 

 driving it out of range; and in so doing he may learn that the tail is abruptly 

 rufous in contrast with the olive-brown of the back, and that the breast is more 

 boldly and distinctly spotted than is the case with the Russet-backed Thrush. 



Winter. — The dwarf hermit thrush spends the winter in California, 

 Lower California, Arizona, and New Mexico. For the Fresno district 

 of California, John G. Tyler (1913) writes: "From mid-October until 

 March occasional examples of this thrush may be found in the willows 

 along the ditches, where they seclude themselves for the most part in 

 the gloomiest shady clumps of large trees. They are quite silent 

 during the time they remain with us, and of such sluggish natures as 

 to appear almost stupid at times. I have sometimes walked up to 

 within five or six feet of one of these birds without causing it the least 

 alarm. At a nearer approach it would leisurely hop to another 

 branch, just out of arm's reach, where it would assume an air of 

 indifference, and remain motionless for some time." 



Grinnell and Wythe (1927) say that the dwarf hermit thrush is an 

 "abundant winter visitant throughout practically the whole [San 

 Francisco Bay] region. Arrives ordinarily about the middle of 

 October; an early record is September 26, at San Geronimo. To be 

 found in woods, in chaparral, in stream-side thickets, and in shrubbery 

 of city gardens; in fact, it avoids only the most open ground of 

 meadows, fields and hillsides." 



HYLOCICHLA GUTTATA SLEVINI Grinnell 



MONTEREY HERMIT THRUSH 

 HABITS 



According to the 1931 Check-list, this small, gray hermit thrush 

 "breeds in the Transition Zone of the coast belt in California from 

 northern Trinity County to southern Monterey Comity. South in 

 migration and in winter to Lower California, Arizona, and Sonora." 



It is the smallest of all the hermit thrushes, and its general colora- 

 tion is nearly as pale and ashy as in the Sierra hermit thrush. 



Grinnell and Wythe (1927) record the Monterey hermit thrush as 

 a "summer resident in small numbers in the most humid parts of the 





