138 BULLETIN 196, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Owens Valley to the west and in plain sight from the White Mountains, is ordi- 

 narily referred to as a pale-colored or even grayish-colored Hermit Thrush; but 

 compared with polionota, the contrast in dorsal view is as of brown with slate-gray. 

 The resemblance of polionota to the Olive-backed Thrush is striking. * * * 



In an examination of hundreds of specimens of Hermit Thrushes from through- 

 out the United States elsewhere than from the White Mountains, the writer has 

 been unable to find one referable to the race polionota. It would seem that this 

 subspecies, like some other migratory brids of the high mountains of the south- 

 west, goes south in the fall to, and back again in the spring from, some far south- 

 ern winter home without touching the lowlands within hundreds of miles of its 

 restricted summer habitat. 



M. G. Vaiden (1940) reports a specimen of this subspecies taken 

 5 miles south of Rosedale, Mississippi, on April 12, 1940; this speci- 

 men is now number 51587 in the collection of Dr. Louis B. Bishop, 

 of Pasadena, Calif. 



Dr. Jean M. Linsdale (1938) has extended the breeding range of 

 the Mono hermit thrush into the Great Basin region, where he 

 found it breeding commonly in the Toyabe Mountains in central 

 Nevada, about 150 miles east of the California boundary. He says 

 that it "seemed to be most numerous at about 8,000 feet, but nearly 

 all the range where there were trees was occupied. The lines and 

 groves of trees which grew close to streams were most certain to be 

 occupied by hermit thrushes. Also" they lived out over the ridges, 

 on slopes covered with mountain mahogany, where the trees were 

 close together, and where there was leaf litter on the ground. One 

 factor of apparent importance in determining the presence of this 

 thrush was the availability of shade. However, the shade was not 

 dense in most of the territory occupied in this area." 



Nesting. — Dr. Linsdale (1938) records some nine nests found by 

 him in the Toyabe Mountains; one found on June 18 contained four 

 small young, four on the 19th held four eggs each, two on the 21st 

 three eggs each, and one found on June 24 contained three well- 

 feathered young. These nests were all at elevations varying from 

 7,500 to 8,500 feet; four of them were in aspens, living or dead, three 

 were in willows, and two were in sage; the heights above ground 

 varied from 2 feet in a sage to 15 feet in a dead aspen, but only two 

 were above 6 feet. Referring to the lowest nest, he says: 



Another nest in a small grove of aspens at 8,000 feet was in the crotch of a 

 sage bush, its rim only 2 feet above the ground. The rim, inside, measured 77 

 mm.; outside, 180 mm. Depth, outside, was 120 mm. The outer part of the 

 nest was mainly the dead flowering stems of sage. The inner part was made of 

 shreds of bark, rootlets, grass stems and black horsehair. Three eggs made 

 up the set. 



When I came within 3 feet, the brooding bird left and flew off silently. * * * 

 With 1 or 2 exceptions when the bird may have been off the nest, all of the brood- 

 ing birds showed a marked reluctance to leave. Most of them permitted approach 



