HERiMIT THRUSH. 33. 



not winter even in Georgia ; nor arrives witliin the southern boundary 

 of that state until some time in April. 



The Hermit Thrush is rarely seen in Pennsylvania, unless for a few 

 weeks in spring and late in the fall, long after the Wood Thrush has 

 left us, and when scarcely a summer bird remains in the woods. In 

 both seasons it is mute, having only, in spring, an occasional squeak 

 like that of a young stray chicken. Along the Atlantic coast in New 

 Jersey they remain longer and later, as I have observed them there 

 late in November. In the cane swamps of the Choctaw nation they 

 were frequent in the month of May, on the twelfth of which I examined 

 one of their nests on a horizontal branch immediately over the path. 

 The female was sitting, and left it with great reluctance, so that I had 

 nearly laid my hand on her before she flew. The nest was fixed on the 

 upper part of the body of the branch, and constructed with great neat- 

 ness ; but without mud or plaster, contrary to the custom of the Wood 

 Thrush. The outside was composed of a considerable quantity of coarse 

 rooty grass, intermixed with horse-hair, and lined with a fine green 

 colored, thread-like grass, perfectly dry, laid circularly with, particular 

 neatness. The eggs were four, of a pale greenish blue, marked with 

 specks and blotches of olive, particularly at the great end. I also 

 observed this bird on the banks of the Cumberland river in April. Its 

 food consists chiefly of berries, of which these low swamps furnish a 

 perpetual abundance, such as those of the holly, myrtle, gall bush (a 

 species of vaccinium), yapon shrub, and many others. 



A superficial observer would instantly pronounce this to be only a 

 variety of the Wood Thrush ; but taking into consideration its difierence 

 of size, color, manners, want of song, secluded habits, differently formed 

 nest, and spotted eggs, all unlike those of the former, with which it 

 never associates, it is impossible not to conclude it to be a distinct and 

 separate species, however near it may approach to that of the former. 

 Its food, and the country it inhabits for half the year, being the same, 

 neither could have produced those diff'erences ; and we must believe it to 

 be now, what it ever has and ever will be, a distinct connecting link in 

 the great chain of this part of animated nature ; all the sublime reason- 

 ing of certain theoretical closet philosophers to the contrary notwith- 

 standing. 



Length of the Hermit Thrush seven inches, extent ten inches and a 

 half ; upper parts plain deep olive brown, lower dull white ; upper part 

 of the breast and throat dull cream color, deepest vhere the plumage 

 falls over the shoulders of the wing, and marked witii large dark brown 

 pointed spots ; ear feathers and line over the eye cream, the former 

 mottled with olive ; edges of the wings lighter, tips dusky ; tail coverts 

 and tail inclining to a reddish fox color. In the Wood Thrush these 

 narts incline to greenish olive. Tail slightly forked ; legs dusky ; bill 



VoT,. II.— 3 



