TURDID^E THE THRUSHES. 68 



Adult in spring and early summer. Above uniform olive-brown, changing to dull 

 cinnamon-rufous on the tail, the upper tail-coverts of an intermediate tint; outer portion 

 of the wings more rusty than the back, but much less rufous than the tail. A very 

 distinct orbital ring of pale buff; auriculars and suborbital region dull grayish brown, in- 

 distinctly streaked with paler. Lower parts dull white, purer on the abdomen, the jugu- 

 lum usually faintly tinged with buff; jugulum marked with large deltoid spots of dark 

 brown or blackish, the more posterior of these spots broader and less pointed, the ante- 

 rior ones more cuneate; sides of the neck with cuneate streaks of dark brown or blackish, 

 narrower and more linear anteriorly, where they form a well defined stripe or "bridle" 

 along each side of the throat; malar region dull white, indistinctly speckled or streaked 

 with brown; breast with distinct roundish or somewhat saggitate spots of deep grayish 

 brown; sides and flanks light grayish olive-brown, axillars and lining of wing pale dull 

 ochraceous; tibiae olive-brown. 



Adult in fall and winter. Similar, but above much browner (almost umber on the 

 back), the tail deeper rufous, the jugulum more distinctly tinged with buff, and the sides 

 browner olive. 



"First plumage: female. Kemiges and rectrices as in adult, but darker and duller; 

 rump and tail-coverts bright rusty-yellow; rest of upper parts, including wing-coverts 

 dark reddish brown, each feather with a central tear-shaped spot of golden- yellow; en- 

 tire under parts rich buff, fading to soiled white on abdomen and anal region; each 

 feather on jugulum and breast broadly tipped with dull black, so broadly, indeed, that 

 this color covers nearly four-fifths of the parts where it occurs; rest of under parts, with 

 exception of abdomen and crissum, which with the central region of the throat are im- 

 maculate, crossed transversely with lines of dull black. From a specimen in my collec- 

 tion shot at Upton, Me., June 20, 1873. This bird was very young, scarcely able to fly, 

 in. fact, yet the color of the rectrices is sufficiently characteristic to separate it at once 

 from the corresponding stage of T. swainsoni, which it otherwise closely resembles. 

 Another specimen of apparently nearly the same age, taken at Eye Beach, N. H., July 25, 

 1872, differs in having a decided reddish or rusty wash over the entire plumage," and by 

 the spots on the breast being brownish instead of black." (BBEWSTEB, Bull. Nutt. Orn. 

 Ciub, Jan.. 1878. p. 17.) 



Specimens vary a good deal in the precise shade of color on the 

 upper parts, the relative blackness of the spots on the jugulum, the 

 distinctness of the buff tinge to the latter region, and other minor 

 details. In the spring or early summer plumage the color of the 

 back is much that of T. ustulatus swainsonii, but is browner, or with 

 less of an olive cast. In winter the back and crown are sometimes 

 decidedly reddish brown, some specimens, (as Nos. 7591, Washing- 

 ton. D. C. and 54823, Enterprise, Florida, Feb. 1), being in fact 

 even more rufescent than the Kocfc^ 7 Mountain form of T. fuscescens. 

 The spots on the jugulum vary in form from decidedly cuneate to 

 broadly deltoid, and in color from dark grayish brown to black. 



An excellent treatise on the several geographical races of this 

 species by Mr. H. W. Henshaw may be found in the "Nuttall Bul- 

 letin," for July, 1879, pp. 134-139. 



The Hermit Thrush is a species of more general distribution than 

 any other of the small thrushes, being found entirely across the 

 continent and north to the arctic regions. It is not quite the same 

 bird, however, in all parts of its range, the Rocky Mountain region 



