THRUSHES. 31 



a. About seven inches long. Above, soft dusky olive, 

 becoming rufous on the rump and tail. Under parts white ; 

 breast buff-tinged and darkly spotted ; sides olive-shaded. 



b. The nest of the Hermit Thrush, which has rarely been 

 found in Massachusetts, is placed almost invariably upon the 

 ground, occasionally in swamps, but more often on sunny, 

 sloping, and shrubby banks near them. It is much like that 

 of the Wilson's Thrush (B), though usually rather larger, 

 coarser, and more loosely constructed. The Hermit Thrushes 

 often lay two sets of three or four eggs, one in the first week 

 of June and one about a month later. Their eggs are very 

 much like those of the " Veeries " (j5), but are larger, aver- 

 aging .90 X .65 of an inch. They are light greenish blue, 

 never spotted. * 



c. In the woods about Boston (and of course in other 

 woods), whether swampy or dry, and also along the wooded 

 roadsides, from the middle of April until the first of May, one 

 may see a great number of Hermit Thrushes. During their 

 stay here, these birds, often in pairs, and sometimes in small 

 parties (a fact which shows that their name is not altogether 

 an appropriate one), spend their time, for the most part in 

 silence, busied among the dead leaves and underbrush, occa- 

 sionally resting on a low perch, and rarely flying far when 

 disturbed. They are quiet birds, and, though often easily ap- 

 proached, prefer those places where they are not likely to be 

 intruded upon. On leaving this State in the spring, they pass 

 on to northern New England and to Canada, where they spend 

 the summer and rear their young, being in some localities the 

 most common Thrushes. In October, they return to Massachu- 

 setts, in the course of their journey to their winter homes in 

 the South, and a few linger until November is well advanced. 26 



Massachusetts and on Cape Cod, spar- K Mr. Maynard, writing of the Her- 



ingly and locally in eastern Massachu- mit Thrush in The Naturalist's Guide, 



setts and northwestern Connecticut, says that he has "taken it in Coos 



Elsewhere in southern New England County, New Hampshire, on October 



an abundant early spring and late au- 31st, although the ground was covered 



tumn migrant. It has been found with snow, six inches deep at the time ; 



several times in midwinter near Boston, also in Oxford County, Maine, as late 



W. B. as November 6th." He adds that " a 



* There are said to be occasional ex- few undoubtedly breed here." 

 ceptions to this rule. W. B. 



