HERMIT THRUSH. l7 



The veery spends the summer only in this country, arriving in 

 Southern Ontario early in May and reaching the more northern 

 sections somewhat later. In the autumn it has started on its 

 journey southward before the end of September. 



HERMIT THRUSH. 



This species does not summer so far to the southward as does 

 the veery, but goes somewiiat farther north. It is a niigrart 

 only in the vicinity of London and Hamilton and thereabouts, 

 but elsewhere all over the country, up to the region of the 

 fiftieth parallel, the bird is more or less common, and examples 

 have been taken even farther northward. It is a lover of the 

 woodlands and its favorite home is a grove on the flank of a moist 

 meadow, but it never haunts the shaded dells that are the delight 

 of the veery. The hermit, however, has many habits that are 

 veery-like. It places its nest on the ground, hidden among the 

 grass or the underbrush, and builds it of the same coarse material — 

 leaves, strips of bark, bits of weed stalks and coarse grass, and puts 

 these together with the same patrician-like disregard to outward 

 display. The eggs also are of the same pale greenish blue tint and 

 are unspotted. But the song of the hermit is all its own ; there is 

 no other song like it. True, this bird shares with others of its kin 

 that quality of voice which separate these singers from all others of 

 the woodland choir, a voice that combines in its rich clear tones 

 the mellow flute and the silver horn. But the theme of the hermit's 

 song is like none other, and is to my ear the finest bit of bird-music 

 heard in this country. It is indeed **a serene hymn-like melody," 

 as John Burroughs writes. It bears no trace of passion nor of 

 mere exultant joy, but is child-like in its purity and simplicity, 

 and hymn-like in its placid rhythm — just such a strain as the Holy 

 Innocents might sing. 



But few writers have done justice to this songster because, I think, 



few have heard the complete song. Many of them tell us that the 



song is short and ends abruptly with its highest loudest note, while 



the few know that the song is not so short as has been stated, " four 



2 



