WOODLAND SINGERS. 163 



A greater, at least a more brilliant, singer of . our 

 Northern woods, but one, however, who does not ob- 

 ject occasionally to singing in a tree beside the high- 

 way near the pasture bars, is the hermit thrush (Tur- 

 dus AonalaschkcB Pallasii}. This plainly attired lit- 

 tle creature is about two thirds as large as the wood 

 thrush. His back is an olive-brown which grows 

 slightly ruddy toward the tail ; his breast is dull 

 white spotted with pointed spots of umber-brown, 

 not as prominent nor as large as those of the wood 

 thrush ; immediately under the bill the throat is not 

 spotted. His head is also broad and the eyes are 

 prominent. The tail of the female bird is most like- 

 ly to be a rufous brown. She lays three or four 

 green-blue eggs, rarely if ever spotted, in a rude nest 

 usually hidden under the bushes and grass on the 

 ground. In the South the hermit thrush lives the 

 year around, and is most frequently seen in the deso- 

 late cane swamps, flitting in the dim light which is 

 characteristic of these regions. In the North the 

 home of the hermit is among the mountain woods ; 

 he is always heard in early summer in the vicinity of 

 Mounts Lafayette and Kinsman, N. II., singing along 

 with Swainson's thrush in the half -lit spruce woods 

 late in the day. Indeed, the hermit thrush seems to 

 prefer a dim if not a " religious " light, which may 

 in a measure account for the hymnlike quality of its 



