SONG-BIRDS. Thrushes 



Breeds : From Massachusetts northward. 

 Nest and Eggs : Similar to those of the Veery. 



Eange : Eastern North America, wintering from the Northern States 

 southward. 



Burroughs says : " If we take the quality of melody as a 

 test, the Wood Thrush, the Hermit Thrush, and the Veery 

 Thrush stand at the head of our list of songsters." One may 

 be very familiar with the songs of two of this trio without 

 ever having identified the third, or at least without having 

 heard it sing. 



At the first glance the Hermit closely resembles the Wood 

 Thrush, but a good field-glass will enable you to see the 

 colour distinction of the back, and also that the Hermit has 

 a more yellowish throat and that the breast spots are more 

 acute. Its rarity differs very much according to location. 

 It is comparatively common in the northeast, and Dr. Warren 

 says that in Pennsylvania it is, with the exception of the 

 Robin, the commonest of the Thrushes and breeds occasion- 

 ally in some of the higher mountain districts. Here, as well 

 as in many of the Middle States, where it is only a migrant, 

 its full song is seldom heard. I have not found it a shy 

 bird, not more so than the Wood Thrush, but it doubtless 

 becomes shy in its breeding-haunts. 



I made its acquaintance, several years ago, in the lane back 

 of the garden, and had watched its rapid, nervous motions 

 during many migrations before I heard it sing. This, spring, 

 the first week in May, when standing at the window about 

 six o'clock in the morning, I heard an unusual note, and 

 listened, thinking it at first a Wood Thrush and then a 

 Thrasher, but soon finding that it was neither of these I 

 opened the window softly and looked among the nearby 

 shrubs, with my glass. The wonderful melody ascended 

 gradually in the scale as it progressed, now trilling, now 

 legato, the most perfect, exalted, unrestrained, yet withal, 

 finished bird song that I ever heard. At the final note I 

 caught sight of the singer perching among the lower sprays 

 of a dogwood tree. I could see him perfectly : it was the 

 Hermit Thrush! In a moment he began again. I have 



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