THE BIRDS OF PRINCETON. lOQ 



it either from the books or from persons 

 who had heard it. Some authorities com- 

 pare the hermit's song to that of the veery, 

 others to that of the wood-thrush. I con- 

 sidered, however, that I knew thoroughly, 

 and in all their variations, the songs of 

 these two birds, and I felt sure that I 

 should recognize at once as belonging to 

 this wonderful family, embracing the veery, 

 the wood-thrush, the hermit-thrush, the 

 olive-back thrush, and the gray-cheeked 

 thrush, any song that did actually belong 

 to it The olive-backed and gray-cheeked 

 are arctic thrushes, so that if I heard the 

 songs of any thrush belonging to this fam- 

 ily which I had never heard before, it 

 would be the song of the hermit. 



I reached the summit about six o'clock 

 in the evening. On the way up I heard 

 oven-birds and wood-pewees at frequent 

 intervals. I was also much delighted at 

 finding again, near the top, my snow-birds 

 of last summer. This time I was sure they 

 were nesting there, as was plainly shown 

 by their demonstrations while I remained 



