THRUSHES 633 



Nests of the Hermit Thrush are always built on the ground 

 so far as my experience goes. A very favorite location for 

 them is at the foot of some small bush on a tussock or mossy 

 hummock in the midst of the extensive, open, mossy sphagnum 

 and hackmatack bogs of central and northern Maine. In 

 northern Maine the distribution of the species is rather local 

 in the sense that they are common in such open boggy expanses 

 and rare or absent from the thick, deep, dense evergreen woods 

 save where there are locally more open stretches about some 

 pond or lake. About Bangor and elsewhere in central Maine 

 the Hermit also nests in the more open swampy tracts of woods 

 as well as in the second growth birches and beeches, frequenting 

 in general such tracts of thicket and woodland where the 

 fragrant Arbutus grows, and here nesting on the ground and 

 at the foot of some small bush on a hummock. 



The nesting season is subject to considerable variation, for 

 very rarely I have found full complements of eggs as early as 

 May first, though the more usual date for eggs is from May 

 seventeenth to June tenth, and very exceptionally I have found 

 eggs in July. Mr. Mead records a nest found near Bridgton, 

 July 14, 1899, which contained three eggs. In spite of this 

 great diversity of dates I am inclined to believe that only one 

 brood of young is reared as a rule, though sets of eggs found 

 as late as July may doubtless be instances where a second brood 

 was being reared. 



A nest in my possession was found near the University of 

 Maine, May 17, 1898. It was placed on the ground on a 

 slightly mossy hummock, on the southwesterly side of a low 

 fir bush, in a low shrubby second growth in slightly swampy 

 land. The nest was composed of dry culms and leaves of 

 grass, stipes and dried fronds of small ferns, and lined with 

 pine needles and small fine black roots. It measures three 

 inches in depth outside by two inside, the diameter outside is 

 five and inside two and a half inches. 



The eggs measure 0.87 x 0.66, 0.86 x 0.66, 0.85 x 0.67, 



