THE HERMIT THRUSH 51 



liarly American. In any case, there was 

 chosen for our vacation this summer the 

 very fastness of the hermit's territory 

 (Franconia, New Hampshire), and our 

 reward came steadily and generously for 

 forty-one days. Once I found his nest; 

 many times I saw him, five times with the 

 distance and light so favorable that the 

 rufous or reddish brown of his tail was 

 very noticeable ; every day excepting two 

 (wet and cold), I heard him sing; one 

 hundred and fifty times, perhaps; in ten 

 different woods; as early as four o'clock 

 in the morning and as late as eight at 

 night. The details of this entire experi- 

 ence are too many for this article; but I 

 can write somewhat closely concerning 

 one thrush — for convenience let us call 

 him Dulcet. This remarkable singer I 

 first heard early in July (the sixth, I 

 think), and I remember every stage of 

 that exciting chase, exceedingly dubious 

 until at last the bird flew into a clearing 

 where I saw him distinctly, only eight or 



