THE HERMIT THRUSH. ii 



similar cases, but all such were in wet places. The materials 

 used are decayed, deciduous leaves, remnants of dried weeds, 

 sedges, plants and grass, mixed with twigs and lined with fine 

 matter. The structure thus so closely resembles that of the 

 veery that one must be cautious not to mistake its commoner 

 home for that of the rare hermit's. In the north much moss is 

 used, — sometimes exclusively among the pine woods; while 

 A. L. Adams, in his Field and Forest Rambles, mentions that 

 in New Brunswick mud enters into the composition of the nest. 

 When you approach their hiding place, the birds mourn- 

 fully retire and keep silent ; but it is said if a hawk or crow, in 

 search of young birds, comes near, they attack it courageously. 

 Eggs are laid about the first week in June. A correspondent 

 in North Bridgton, southwestern Maine, writes me, however, 

 that he has seen eggs nearly hatched, on May 24, and also fresh 

 ones as late as July 10. The eggs are of a somewhat elongated- 

 oval form, and in color light blue, with a tendency to green. 

 As remarked above, the earlier ornithologists were all mistaken 

 in describing these eggs as spotted or blotched, since there is 

 no such instance authenticated. The measurements are about 

 .90 of an inch long, by .63 wide, in average examples. Two 

 broods are sometimes raised in a season. 



In the west there are two distinct varieties of this species : 

 Audubon's Thrush (Var. Auduboni, No. 4a) ; and the Dwarf 

 Thrush (Var. nanus. No. 4^). 



Audubon's thrush, also called the Rocky Mountain hermit, 

 is the more common, and the more southern in its habitat, ex- 

 tending from northern Colorado and Utah in summer to Central 

 Mexico, where it is resident upon the table-lands. It breeds 

 abundantly through the southern Rocky Mountains, at great 

 altitudes, and at Salt Lake City, where Henshaw found its nest. 

 Another nest, taken by him on June 7, at Fort Garland, Col- 

 orado, he describes as built in the cavity of a broken pine stub, 

 about three feet from the ground. It was composed almost 

 wholly of strips of bark and coarse grasses, covered externally 

 with mosses. A nest found at Fort Ellis, Montana, in a small 

 pine tree in the mountains, consisted entirely of mosses lined 

 with fine grass leaves. The eggs in all cases are deep greenish 



