HERMIT THRUSH. 205 
HERMIT THRUSH. 
SWAMP ROBIN. 
TURDUS AONALASCHK PALLASII. 
CuHar. Above, olive, shading to rufous on rump and tail; beneath 
white or buffish, shaded with olive on sides; throat and breast spotted 
with dark olive. Length 6% to 7 inches. 
West. On the ground, loosely made of leaves, grass, and moss. 
£egs. 3-5; greenish blue ; 0.85 X 0.65. 
This species, so much like the Nightingale in color, is scarce 
inferior to that celebrated bird in its powers of song, and 
greatly exceeds the Wood Thrush in the melody and sweetness 
of its lay. It inhabits the United States from the lofty alpine 
mountains of New Hampshire to Florida. It is also met with 
on the tableland of Mexico and in the warmer climate of the 
Antilles. In Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New England, at 
the close of autumn, it appears to migrate eastward to the sea- 
coast in quest of the winter berries on which it now feeds; in 
spring and summer it lives chiefly on insects and their larve, 
and also collects the surviving berries of the AZitchella repens. 
Like the preceding species, it appears to court solitude, and 
lives wholly in the woods. In the Southern States, where it 
inhabits the whole year, it frequents the dark and desolate 
shades of the cane swamps. In these almost Stygian regions, 
which, besides being cool, abound probably with its favorite 
insect food, we are nearly sure to meet our sweetly vocal 
hermit flitting through the settled gloom, which the brightest 
rays of noon scarcely illumine with more than twilight. In one 
of such swamps, in the Choctaw nation, Wilson examined a. 
nest of this species which was fixed on the horizontal branch 
of a tree, formed with great neatness and without using any 
plastering of mud. The outside was made of a layer of coarse 
grass, having the roots attached, and intermixed with horse- 
hair; the lining consisted of green filiform blades of dry grass 
very neatly wound about the interior. 
In the Middle States these birds are only seen for a few 
