ALASKA HERMIT THRUSH 125 



Food. — The food of all the western races of the hermit thrush may 

 as well be considered here, as several of the forms live or spend the 

 winter in California, and as Professor Beal's (1907) study of the 

 stomach contents of 68 hermit thrushes, taken in California, does 

 not separate the food of the different subspecies. The food of all 

 the races is much the same under similar conditions. Beal's analysis 

 shows the food to consist of 56 percent animal and 44 percent vegetable 

 matter. Of the animal food, Hymenoptera, mostly ants, constitute 

 the largest item, 24 percent; caterpillars come next, 10 percent; 

 beetles, all harmful species and more than two-thirds weevils, form 

 11 percent of the food; other insects, spiders, and miscellaneous items 

 amount to 12 percent. One stomach contained the bones of a 

 salamander. Beal writes: 



The vegetable food is made up of two principal components — fruit and seeds. 

 The former amounts to 29 percent of the whole, and is composed of wild species, 

 or of old fruit left on trees and vines. A few stomachs contained seeds of rasp- 

 berries, which, of course, must have been old, dried-up fruit. Seeds of the pepper 

 tree and mistletoe were the most abundant and, with some unidentifiable pulp 

 and skins, make up the complement of fruit. * * * Seeds of all kinds amount 

 to 14 percent of the food, but only a few are usually reckoned as weed seeds. 

 The most abundant seed was poison oak (Rhus diversiloba) , which was found in 

 a number of stomachs. While this plant is not usually classed among weeds, it 

 is really a weed of the worst description, since it is out of place no matter where 

 it is. It is unfortunate that the birds in eating the seeds of this plant do not 

 destroy them, but only aid in their dissemination. 



Mr. Dawson (1923) watched them feeding in his yard and says: 



They tackle the pepper berries, and rather awkwardly at first. It is evidently 

 new business for some of them, and they make hard work of it. One bird that I 

 particularly observed would fly up to a bunch, hover a moment in midair, snatch 

 a berry, and return to a more secure position. This he did repeatedly, without 

 once endeavoring to alight on the berry cyme itself, or trying to find a place 

 where he might eat his fill unmolested. Another dashed up and fell to eating 

 the berries as they lay strewn upon the ground. He fed very daintily, taking 

 care in each instance to discard the red husk. * * * 



One of our garden faucets drips incessantly and this is the favorite drinking 

 place of the Hermit. A bird will alight on the faucet and, stooping over, will 

 pluck the drops one by one as they fall. One morning I saw five birds at a time 

 either waiting their turn or else making suggestive dives at the fellow who seemed 

 to be tarrying too long at the faucet. 



Behavior. — Dawson (1923) gives the following good description of 

 a well-known bit of action that is common to all hermit thrushes, and 

 by which they can often be recognized: 



Perhaps the most prominent characteristic of the Hermit Thrush, and the one 

 which does most to remove it from the commonplace, is the incessant twinkling 

 of the wings — the action is so rapid and the return to the state of repose so incal- 

 culably quick that the general impression or silhouette is not thereby disturbed; 

 but we have an added feeling of mobility of tensity on the part of the bird which 



