HERMIT THRUSH. 27 
The description of our smaller Thrushes with their varieties is no easy matter. 
It is especially difficult to find a way through the ornithological literature bearing on 
this subject, as several allied and frequently identical birds have been ranked as different 
species. Of late, however, our ‘American Ornithologists’ Union” has laid a solid found- 
ation for nomenclature. Besides the Hermit just described, former ornithological works 
mention two closely related birds as true species. Audubon called a somewhat smaller 
western form Turdus nanus (Dwarf Thrush) and later a somewhat larger variety, also 
found in the West, was called Turdus auduboni (Audubon’s Thrush). The real eastern 
species was called Turdus solitarius by Wilson, a name which was accepted by many 
ornithological writers of by-gone days, but as Linnaeus had before named another 
species ‘solitarius,’ and as it is necessary to recognize the right of priority in scientific 
nomenclature, the name given by Dr. Jean Cabanis, Turdus pallasi, in honor of the 
famous traveller and naturalist Pallas—has been accepted. Prof. Robert Ridgway, the 
celebrated ornithologist of the Smithsonian Institution, both a learned systematist and 
a gifted artist—as the beautiful plates of this work, partly painted by him, show— 
found that the small western form had been named Turdus aonalaschkae as early 
as 1788 by Gmelin, consequently prior to the naming of the eastern Hermit Thrush. 
He. therefore selected the first named form as the real species and regarded the two 
forms discovered and named later as varieties of the same. 
The WESTERN HERMIT THrusH, or DwarF Hermit THRUSH (Turdus aonalaschkae 
Gmel.), the typical species, inhabits the Pacific Coast from Lower California and 
western Mexico to Alaska. It breeds from the mountains of California north to Kadiak. 
Gmelin named the bird in accordance with the description of Pennant and Latham, two 
well known ornithologists of the last century. Little is as yet known about this bird’s 
habits, nesting, song, &c. It probably closely resembles the eastern Hermit in all these 
points. 
DESCRIPTION: It is smaller than the Hermit of the East. Length 6 to 7 inches. The tail is ‘deep rufous, 
almost chestnut” (Ridgw.). ; 
AupuUBON’s HERMIT THRUSH (Turdus aonalaschkae auduboni RipGw.).—This variety 
which Brehm called the ‘Silent Thrush” (Schweigdrossel) after Swainson’s name Merula 
silens, inhabits the Rocky Mountains from the northern border of the United States 
south to the highlands of Mexico and Guatemala. According to Sumichrast it is 
abundant in all the mountain forests. He found the bird at all seasons in the mountains 
near Moyoapam and Orizaba to an altitude of 8,000 feet. The Mexican name “‘Soli- 
tario” is proof enough that this variety does not differ in its habits from the eastern 
Hermit Thrush. Though little is as yet known concerning its song, one is justified in 
maintaining that this bird, like its related forms, is an excellent singer. The name 
“Silent Thrush” is doubtless misapplied. 
DESCRIPTION: Larger than the eastern Hermit. Length 7.50 to 8.25 inches. “Tail dull ochraceous-rufous, 
or fulvous; colors in general rather grayer.’' (Ridgw.) 
