HERMIT THRUSH. 208 
The call of the tawny is greatly varied, but the 
hermit has a peculiar, nasal chuck, which, Mr. 
Bicknell says, suggests “the note of a distant 
blackbird.” 
The low, sweet, trilled song of the tawny bears 
little resemblance to the loud, richly modulated 
song of the hermit; but as they have been mis- 
taken for each other, it may be well to give the 
approximate relations of time and note in mu- 
sical phrase. Like the song of the tawny, the 
hermit’s is divided into three parts, going down 
the scale. But the trill is, here, only the middle 
of each phrase 
ee terete - 
Variations from this occur in broken songs, as: 
Y @o ae ae 
g ee 
ore Ooo ieee ; 
ah re 00-00, 
At a little distance this is probably the most 
beautiful song of our woods. Mr. Burroughs 
says that to him it is the finest sound in nature. 
In the Adirondack region the retiring hermit is 
appropriately known as the “swamp angel.” 
On the beautiful May morning when we found 
the red-winged blackbirds “ fluting their o-ka-lee”’ 
over the field of cowslips, we went on to the woods 
back of the alder swamp where the wild flowers 
