EASTERN HERMIT THRUSH 159 



yards away. At such times the throat of the bird vibrates or pul- 

 sates but the mandibles are tightly closed, thus subduing the loud- 

 ness and carrying power of the varied notes. 



Horace W. Wright (1912) has made a study of the times of the 

 awakening and the evensong of the hermit thrush. Out of a list of 

 57 species recorded the hermit took sixteenth place in order of the 

 first voices heard early in the morning. Of 18 records of the hermit 

 thrush the first song was 63 minutes and the latest initial song 45 

 minutes before sunrise. Of 55 species of birds studied for the latest 

 evening song the hermit stands in fifty-first place. Out of 20 records 

 the average number of minutes after sunset was 33, the latest final 

 song 40 minutes after sunset, and the earliest final song 25 minutes 

 after sunset. 



The song season of the hermit thrush, unlike that of many of our 

 song birds/ is not limited to the time of the breeding season, but 

 it is also in full song in its winter haunts in the south. Aretas A. 

 Saunders (1929b) writes that he has heard the hermit commonly 

 and in full voice in the pine forests of central Alabama. Otto Wid- 

 mann (1907) in writing of the winter resident hermit thrushes of the 

 peninsula of Missouri states: "He greets it with his most tender 

 strains on his return in the fall, and sings aloud before he leaves it 

 for the north." Many other observers have had similar experiences, 

 of hearing the full song of the hermit in their winter haunts although 

 this bird does not sing during its migration journey. 



W. DeW. Miller (1911) observed 12 hermit thrushes which wintered 

 in a grove of red cedars, in a sheltered valley near Plainfield, N. J., 

 where there was an abundance of food in the berries of the flowering 

 dogwood. He writes : 



j * * * heard three distinct call-notes from these birds, one, of course, 

 the familiar low blackbird-like chuck. The two other notes do not seem to be 

 commonly known, at least to those familiar with the bird only as a migrant. 

 The first is a simple, high-pitched whistle, rarely loud; the second, a curious, some- 

 what nasal cry recalling the unmusical note of the veery. 



The Hermit Thrush seldom sings while with us in the spring, and the song 

 is so low as to be inaudible if one is more than a few yards from the singer. On 

 March 19, I was agreeably surprised to hear four or five of these thrushes singing 

 through most of the afternoon, though it was raining at the time. The song of 

 only one bird, however, was of sufficient volume to be heard at any distance. 



Enemies. — The hermit thrush is subject to the usual enemies such 

 as snakes, foxes, weasels, and skunks that molest ground-nesting 

 birds. The* domestic cat, which is so destructive to birds that nest 

 about or near human dwellings, is less of a factor in the life of a bird 

 that usually nests in remote situations seldom visited by cats. The 

 stomach examinations of hawks and owls reveal that \ the hermit 

 sometimes falls a victim to these predators. 



