AUDUBON'S HERMIT THRUSH 139 



close enough to touch them before starting. Then they usually dropped to a 

 perch near the ground and moved away quietly. 



A nest that was 3 feet from the ground in a 5-foot sagebush "was 

 on a slope 15 feet from the margin of a grove of aspens which bordered 

 a stream. The bush was on a northwest-facing slope where it was 

 exposed to the sun for nearly the full day. Near it were grass, 

 herbaceous plants, and Symphoricarpus." 



There are three sets of eggs in the Doe collection, University of 

 Florida, that were placed somewhat higher; one nest, containing four 

 eggs, was located 12 feet from the ground in a small yellow pine; a set 

 of three eggs came from a nest that was 20 feet up and 10 feet out on 

 a limb of a lodgepole pine; and another set of five eggs was in a nest 30 

 feet from the ground in an aspen. These were all collected in the 

 White Mountains. 



Eggs. — The set for the Mono hermit thrush usually consists of three 

 or four eggs, usually the latter number. These are very similar to the 

 eggs of other hermit thrushes of similar size. The measurements of 

 30 eggs average 22.2 by 16.7 millimeters; the eggs showing the four 

 extremes measure 24.1 by 15.3, 22.0 by 17.5, 19.9 by 16.0, and 21.6 

 by 15.3 millimeters. 



HYLOCICHLA GUTTATA AUDUBONI (Baird) 



AUDUBON'S HERMIT THRUSH 



HABITS 



This mountain race is the most widely distributed of the western 

 hermit thrushes, breeding from southeastern British Columbia and 

 Montana, mainly in the Rocky Mountain region, south to Arizona 

 and New Mexico, and in the Sierra de la Laguna in southern Lower 

 California. 



It was first recognized as distinct from the eastern hermit thrush 

 by Baird (1864), who named it, based on a specimen from Fort 

 Bridger, Wyo., of which he says: "The back is rather more olivaceous 

 than in pallasii, the rump paler and less rufous, and the colors generally 

 much as in nanus. * * * Whether the present bird be specifically 

 distinct from T. pallasii or not, there is no doubt of its being a de- 

 cidedly marked race, of larger size and grayer plumage above." 



It is decidedly the largest of the hermit thrushes and is quite similar 

 in coloration to the Sierra hermit thrush, the other mountain race. 



It seems strange that this thrush should be found apparently 

 breeding in the Sierra de la Laguna, so far removed from the remainder 

 of the breeding range of this subspecies, with no other hermit thrush 

 breeding in the gap, but there seems to be no doubt about it. Mr. 

 Frazar collected six specimens in these mountains for Mr. Brewster 



