THE HERMIT THRUSH. 149 



Bubtriangular spots of dark olive-brown; the sides of the breast with paler and less 

 distinct spots of the same ; sides of the body under the wings of a paler shade than 

 the back ; a whitish ring round the eye ; ear coverts very obscurely streaked with 

 paler. 



Length, seven and fiftj' one-hundredths inches; wing, three and eighty-four one- 

 hundredths ; tail, three and twenty -five one-hundredths ; tarsus, one and sixteen 

 one-hundredths. 



Hab. — Eastern North America to the Mississippi River. 



This bird, although not so well known in Massachusetts, 

 Connecticut, and Rhode Island, is quite familiar to the 

 people of the other States in New England. It arrives from 

 the South about the middle of April, and passes leisurely 

 to the North, where it arrives about the middle of May. 

 It very seldom breeds in any districts south of the latitude 

 of the middle of Maine ; and from thence north it is quite 

 abundant, where it is known by the name of the Swamp 

 Robin. I have been so fortunate as to find several nests 

 of this species ; and they were all built in very low scrubby 

 trees or bushes, quite near the ground. They were com- 

 posed of twigs, grasses, mosses, and leaves ; they were 

 deeply hollowed, and no mud was used in their composition, 

 as with several other species ; they were lined with soft 

 grasses, mosses, and fine fibrous roots. The eggs were, in 

 one nest, three in number ; and, in the others, four. This was 

 about the 10th of June. The localities were in the neigh- 

 borhood of Lake Umbagog and in the valley of the Magal- 

 loway River, in Maine. The eggs of this species are of a 

 somewhat elongated oval form, and their color is a light- 

 blue with a very faint tint of green : " about one in every 

 four has very thinly scattered spots of reddish-brown, and 

 occasionally one is met with having an abundance of 

 coarser spots of two shades of brown." Dimensions 

 of specimens from various localities vary from .92 by .65 

 to .88 by .60 inch. 



Mr. C. L. Paine, of Randolph, Vt., writes me that he has 

 found numbers of the nests of this bird, and that they were 

 invariably built on the ground. He also says that the eggs 



