EASTERN HERMIT THRUSH 143 



HYLOCICHLA GUTTATA FAXONI Bangs and Penard 



EASTERN HERMIT THRUSH 



Contributed by Alfred Otto Gross 



HABITS 



The hermit thrush ranks high in the list of our favorite North 

 American birds. The exquisite song of this modest bird of the 

 northern woodlands has captivated the affections of a host of bird 

 lovers. Those who have been privileged to hear its song possess 

 delightf ul memories of associations with the hermit : perhaps a wooded 

 border of some mirrored lake or some fern-carpeted woodland; or 

 again they may have heard the fluted notes ringing across some 

 brilliant sunset scene. 



John Burroughs has beautifully expressed the inspiration, the ele- 

 vating character of the emotions with which the hermit's song infuses 

 us when he wrote the following lines in "Wake Robin": "Mounting 

 toward the upland again, I pause reverently as the hush and stillness 

 of twilight come upon the woods. It is the sweetest, ripest hour of the 

 day. And as the hermit's evening hymn goes up from the deep soli- 

 tude below me, I experience that serene exaltation of sentiment of 

 which music, literature, and religion are but the faint types and 

 symbols." 



Unfortunately those who know the hermit only as a migrant are 

 unfamiliar with this bird as the accomplished singer, for it passes on 

 its migration without uttering more than a few uninteresting calls. 

 Some of the earlier ornithologists were evidently unaware of its accom- 

 plishments. Wilson did not know of its song and Audubon as far as 

 his personal acquaintance with the bird is concerned speaks only of its 

 single plaintive note. One must meet the hermit in its nesting haunts 

 of the northern woods to know this bird at its best. 



O. Bangs and T. E. Penard (1921) found the two original names 

 of the hermit thrush untenable. Turdus solitarius Wilson is preoccu- 

 pied by Turdus solitarius Linnaeus. Wilson's description is of the 

 hermit thrush, but the plate to which he referred represents Hylocichla 

 ustulata swainsonii (Cabanis). Turdus brunneus Brewer is preoccu- 

 pied by Turdus brunneus ~Bodd&ert= Euphagus carolinus (Muller). 

 But from Brewer's article it is difficult to determine whether Turdus 

 brunneus "Gmel." refers to Hylocichla guttata pallasii or Hylocichla 

 ustulata swainsonii. Both names are thus of a composite nature, and 

 the authors considered it best to propose an entirely independent 

 name, Hylocichla guttata faxoni subsp. nov., for the eastern hermit 

 thrush. 



According tojRidgway (1907) the eastern hermit (thrush is most 

 like Hylocichla guttata nana of the six western subspecies, but the 



