26 HERMIT THRUSH. 
thickness of the walls and of the base. The eggs are like those of the Robin and Wood 
Thrush, in their uniform greenish blue color, but smaller, measuring about nine-tenths 
of an inch in length by five-eighths in breadth; being thus not distinguishable from 
those of the Veery. I have never known of an instance, to my recollection, of the eggs 
being spotted; but so many birds which usually lay whole-colored bluish eggs occasion- 
ally drop a set which are somewhat speckled that I should not be surprised to find at 
any time a Hermit Thrush’s egg showing a few specks about the larger end.” 
We are still little acquainted with the breeding habits and the life of the Hermit 
in its summer haunts. Even the limits of the breeding range have not yet been estab- 
lished with certainty. That it is a common bird of the Canadian fauna we well know, 
but probably it breeds in considerable numbers also in the rhododendron and kalmia- 
clad Alleghany Mountains. Mr. Bicknell found it with the Olive-backed -and Bicknell’s 
Thrush during the breeding season in the Catskills of eastern New York. 
Its flight and all its manners are precisely the same as those of the smaller 
Thrushes. Its food, usually sought on the ground, consists principally of inseéts. The 
different berries found in its swampy home vary this diet.— 
Caged Hermits, though very wild during the first days of their captivity, finally 
become quite tame and affectionate. I have kept many, and almost all of them became 
so tame that they would take meal-worms, grass-hoppers, &c., from my hand. As the 
sexes are colored alike, a long time elapsed before I could single out and isolate a sing- 
ing male. Even when thus separated, a year may pass without once hearing the bird’s 
real song. It commences singing about the beginning of April, at first very softly, with 
interrupted twittering; finally, about the beginning of May, the song becomes full and 
exceedingly harmonious. It sings loudest and most persistently in the morning and in 
the calm quiet evening twilight when almost all other birds are silent. Every sound is 
so pleasing, so full of euphony, so charmingly sweet, that it fills every hearer with 
enthusiasm. Unfortunately the bird stops singing as early as the end of June. 
To make it easy for the non-scientific bird lover and friend of nature to distinguish 
the more or less similar small Thrushes of Eastern North America-I may note how 
the four leading species can be readily distinguished by the color of the UPPER: PARTS 
alone: 
1, The Wood Thrush is tawny, turning to olive on the rump. * 
2, The Veery is entirely tawny. 
3, The Hermit is olive, turning to tawny on the rump and tail. 
4, The Olive-backed Thrush is entirely olive.* 
NAMES: Hermit Turvusu, Solitary Thrush, Rufous-tailed Thrush, Swamp Robin.—Germ. Ejinsiedlerdrossel. 
SCIENTIFIC NAMES: Turdus pallasii Cab., TURDUS AONALASCHKAE PALLASIT Ripew., Merula soli- 
taria Sw. 
DESCRIPTION: Male and female above brownish-olive, changing to tawny or reddish-brown on the rump 
and upper tail-coverts; under parts whitish, tinged on the neck and breast with buff, shaded with 
gray on the sides, and marked with numerous large dusky spots. Throat unmarked. Round the eye 
a yellowish ring. Length 7 to 7.50 inches. —Nest bulky, without mud, placed on the ground in deep, 
bushy, and swampy woods. Eggs uniformly greenish-blue, without spots. .88 X.66 inch. 
* See Stearns and Coues’ New England Bird Life.’ Vol. J, p. 60, 
