[47] BIRDS OF OREGON 



In our own collections, we have three skins from Portland, two from 

 Grants Pass, and two that deserve special mention, one from Mosquito 

 Ranger Station on the Rogue River National Forest, Jackson County, 

 taken September z6, 192.6 (Gabrielson) that is the earliest fall record as 

 well as the one farthest south in the Cascades, and the second from the 

 Steens Mountains, Harney County, taken May 14, 1934 (Jewett) that is 

 the farthest inland station and the latest spring record. Because of the 

 impossibility of distinguishing these subspecies of Hermit Thrush in the 

 field, we have limited our discussion of ranges and dates to specimens 

 actually secured and identified by some competent ornithologist. 



Dwarf Hermit Thrush: 



Hylocichla gun at a nanus (Audubon) 



DESCRIPTION. "Like guttata, but color darker and richer; upper parts brownish 

 olivaceous, tending toward raw umber; top of head and rump browner than back; 

 upper tail coverts and tail burnt umber; under parts more buffy than in guttata. 

 Wing: 3.2.5, tail 1.75, bill .50, tarsus 1.12.." (Bailey) Nest and eggs: Similar to those 

 of the Alaska Hermit Thrush. 



DISTRIBUTION. General: Breeds from Cross Sound, Alaska, to southern British 

 Columbia. Winters south into Mexico. In Oregon: The common wintering Hermit 

 Thrush on coast that occasionally goes inland as far as Portland, Corvallis, Grants 

 Pass, and Brownsboro. 



WE HAVE 2.1 specimens of the Dwarf Hermit Thrush from Oregon, 17 of 

 which are from the coastal slope in Tillamook, Lincoln, and Curry 

 Counties. Our earliest fall specimen was taken September zz and our 

 latest spring bird March 2.6, both from Multnomah County. Of the four 

 inland birds, two are from Portland (September 2.2. , 1907, and March z6, 

 1908, Jewett), one from Corvallis (March 2.5, 1919, Gabrielson), and one 

 from Brownsboro, Jackson County (November 8, 1916, Gabrielson). 

 There are two in the Biological Survey collection, one from Yaquina 

 (December n, 1893, C. P. Streator) and the other from Empire (October 

 13, 1909, D. D. Streeter, Jr.). 



On December 17 and 18, 192,4, while they were together in Tillamook 

 County, the authors witnessed a curious phenomenon. Usually the 

 wintering Hermit Thrushes and Fox Sparrows stay close within the 

 brush that, on this well-watered district, reaches the proportion of a 

 jungle. In such a place, the dull brown of the birds makes them difficult 

 to see if they happen to be at all shy. During the night of December 

 16-17 a heavy wet snow fell down to the very edge of the Pacific, matting 

 the brush down into a soggy mass. Evidently the birds did not like it, 

 for on the morning of the ijth and through the i8th the open glades, 

 beaches, and pasture lands were alive with Hermit Thrushes and Fox 

 Sparrows hopping about in the drift on the beach and among the cattle 



