92 BULLETIN 196, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



high — , a pause; low — medium — high — medium — medium — very low, 

 followed by a harsh note; medium — high very high — low — medium — 

 very low, followed by a harsh note; medium — high — very high — 

 low — medium — high — medium — low — medium — low, followed by the 

 harsh note without intermission, low — high — the harsh note — medium 

 — this repeated slightly lower — medium — the harsh note — high — 

 medium — medium — high — slightly lower — medium — a pause; low — 

 medium — high — low — medium — a long pause, and the song ceased 

 from the place where the bird had been singing, a few minutes later 

 beginning again from some distance away." 



Until it flew away, the bird had not changed its position during the 

 above recital, which lasted between three and four minutes. It will 

 be noted from the above that the songs varied greatly in length, as 

 well as in the order in which the tones were given. The intervals 

 between the tones were about one second. In order to determine the 

 number of times the different tones, or keys, were used, two typical 

 songs were analyzed as follows: 



Very high key, 3 times. High key, 9 times. 



High key, 14 times. Medium key, 7 times. 



Medium key, 21 times. Low key, 10 times. 



Low key, 12 times. Very low key, once. 



Very low key, 4 times. Lower key, 6 times. 



Harsh note, once. Harsh note, 6 times. 

 Very high key, once. 



Mrs. Bailey (1902) quotes an excellent description of the song by 

 Louis Agassiz Fuertes, who says that it is — 



most unique and mysterious, and may be heard in the deep still spruce forests 

 for a great distance, being very loud and wonderfully penetrating. It is a single 

 long-drawn note, uttered in several different keys, some of the high-pitched ones 

 with a strong vibrant trill. Each note grows out of nothing, swells to a full tone, 

 and then fades away to nothing until one is carried away with the mysterious 

 song. When heard near by, as is seldom possible, the pure yet resonant quality 

 of the note makes one thrill with a strange feeling, and is as perfectly the voice 

 of the cool, dark, peaceful solitude which the bird chooses for its home as could be 

 imagined. The hermit thrush himself is no more serene than this wild dweller 

 in the western spruce forests. 



Howard L. Cogswell, of Pasadena, Calif., writes to me: "The only 

 call notes I have heard from varied thrushes in winter are a weak, but 

 very thrushlike tschoook, and a vibrant, vocalized whistle vwoooeeee, 

 somewhat like the noise produced by blowing on a comb wrapped in 

 paper, though not nearly so loud." 



Field marks. — The varied thrush is so conspicuously marked with 

 such striking colors that it could hardly be mistaken for anything 

 else. It is a large, stoutly built thrush, about the size of a robin. 

 The rich, orange-buff throat and breast are separated by a broad 



