HERMIT THRUSH. 23 
by appearing in spring fully two weeks sooner and returning two or even three weeks 
later in the fall. Being restricted to the Canadian fauna it nests only in the Northern 
and in the high mountain woods of the Eastern States, but it is abundant in 
many parts of the Middle States during migration. The Southern States are its winter 
quarters. I have observed the Hermit every year in small companies or in pairs in 
Illinois from about the beginning to the middle of October and in southern Missouri 
towards the end of the same month. At this time they fearlessly and unsuspectingly 
enter gardens close to dwellings and look for insects on the ground and among the 
fallen leaves. I found them most common along the bushy, low and damp edges of 
woods, which are at this time also the favorite resort of a great number of different 
birds bound for the South or North. Finches, especially Fox-colored Sparrows, White- 
crowned Sparrows, White-throated Sparrows, Slate-colored Juncos, and others are the 
constant companions of the Hermit. In spring it is the first of all the smaller Thrushes 
-to return from its winter quarters. Even. in the beginning of April I have seen these 
birds on their way to their northern breeding haunts. They often tarry from one to 
two weeks before deciding to continue their journey. 
During its stay in spring it will return daily with great regularity to the same 
clump of trees or thickets, and to the same garden. In the neighborhood of Houston, 
Texas, and thence westward to Austin, it is one of the most common winter visitors. 
It keeps in the dense shrubbery that borders the bayous, rivers, creeks, and branches, 
along the margins of the hottom woods and in the neighborhood of fields, but always 
where it has as companions besides the birds above mentioned, hundreds of Cardinals, 
Towhees, Thrashers, Yellow-breasted Chats, Carolina Wrens, Myrtle Birds', and many 
others. Here, too, the Hermit seeks the greater part of its food on the ground, though 
it eats many berries, especially those of the holly and Mexican mulberry’. On entering, 
some time between November and March, their sheltered haunts, overgrown mostly 
with evergreen trees and shrubs, such as the magnificent magnolias, hollies*, cherry- 
laurels*, wax myrtles®, red bay‘, loblolly bay’, and many deciduous trees, a whole host 
of the most varied species of birds rises. from the ground to settle on the trees and 
bushes. All remain perfectly silent, only the Hermit utters a soft ‘“‘chuck.’’ While re- 
siding in my simple cabin in the woods near the Yegua Creek, in Texas, I had the best 
of opportunities during the whole winter to observe these Thrushes in my immediate 
neighborhood. Though there were hundreds of them in the thickets near the creek, I 
never saw more than from six to ten individuals together and these were usually 
scattered over a considerable portion of the woods. At the warning note of one of 
these Thrushes not only all other Hermits but even the swarms of Finches and other 
birds rapidly disappeared in the nearest tangled thickets. I never heard the song during 
their winter stay or during migration. Towards the end of February and the beginning 
of March they begin to leave south-eastern Texas, and by the middle of the latter 
month the last stragglers seem to have departed for the North. These Thrushes pass 
the winter also in gfeat numbers in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and especially in 
Florida. They have been observed even in southern Illinois and in the neighborhood of 
1 Dendroica coronata. 2 Callicarpa americana. 3 Ilex opaca, I. dohoon, and I. myrtifolia. “4 Cerasus caroliniana. 
& Myrica cerifera. © Persea carolinensis. 7 Gordonia lasianthus. 
