142 BULLETIN 196, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



cultivated fruit. Among the wild berries eaten are pokeberry, ser- 

 viceberry, holly, black alder, woodbine, elderberries, mistletoe berries, 

 and the seeds of poison-oak. Animal food includes ants, caterpillars, 

 beetles and other insects, and spiders. It evidently does no harm to 

 cultivated crops. 



Voice. — The exquisite song of this thrush is fully as beautiful and 

 inspiring as that of its famous eastern relative, which, in my estima- 

 tion, is one of our most beautiful bird songs. Mrs. Bailey (1902) 

 expresses it very well as follows: 



As you travel through the spire-pointed fir forests of the western mountains, 

 you know the thrush as a voice, a bell-like sublimated voice, which, like the tolling 

 of the Angelus, arrests toil and earthly thought. Its phrases can be expressed 

 in the words Mr. Burroughs has given to the eastern hermit, "Oh, spheral, spheral! 

 oh, holy, holy!" and the first strain arouses emotions which the regularly falling 

 cadences carry to a perfect close. The fine spirituality of the song, its serene 

 uplifting quality, make it fittingly associated with nature's most exalted moods, 

 and it is generally heard in the solemn stillness of sunrise, when the dark fir forest 

 is tipped with gold, or in the hush of sunset, when the western sky is aglow and 

 the deep voice rises from its chantry in slow, soul-stirring cadences, high-up-high- 

 up, look-up, look-up. 



Leon Kelso (1935), writing of it in Colorado, says: "They sing at all 

 times of the day, but most often in the evening. June 17, 1933, they 

 sang as late as 8:00 p. m. June 20, they sang as late as 8:20 p. m. 

 One gave songs at intervals of 6-3-4-7-8-2-5 seconds. June 21, 7 :00 

 a. m. the same bird sang at intervals averaging 5-6 seconds. At 

 4-4:30 p.m. it sang at 5-10 second intervals while the writer stood 

 within ten feet of its perch. At 7:45 p. m. it sang at intervals of 

 4-5-5-5-4-6-5 seconds. All birds of this species ceased singing at 

 8:15 p. m. on this day, it then being quite dark." 



Enemies. — Audubon's hermit thrush is listed by Dr. Friedmann 

 (1929) as a rare victim of the Nevada cowbird; but he has only one 

 definite record, that of a nest in the R. M. Barnes collection that held 

 three eggs of the thrush and one of the cowbird. 



Winter. — Audubon's hermit thrush goes farther south in winter than 

 any of the other hermit thrushes. Dr. Helmuth O. Wagner (MS.) says 

 of its winter haunts in Mexico: "In the winter time, from October 15 

 to April 4, you will find it in the forests around Mexico City and in the 

 parks of the city. In the mountains I saw at all times only single 

 birds, neither with other birds nor with those of its own species. They 

 prefer to stay in the barancas and on the sides of the small brooks. 

 The winter is the dry season here, and they are living only in the 

 moister parts of the forests. In the city I saw them on the lawns 

 which are watered each day. If the winter is very dry they travel 

 to places where conditions are better; this winter, 1942-43, is extremely 

 dry; I saw the last bird on November 13." 



