LAND BIRDS. 721 
of three fresh eggs in Ottawa county May 20, 1879, taking the female for 
positive identification. There is a nest and three eggs in the Agricultural 
College collection taken by Gunn and Gibbs, marked Ottawa county, 
May 31, 1879, possibly the same nest. Dr. Gibbs found the species in 
Montcalm county, near Howard City, where he took a nest June 10, 1882 
and was satisfied that they nested in abundance. Dr. R. H. Wolcott 
found it common at Charlevoix in dense pine woods where it was un- 
doubtedly breeding. The writer found it nesting in Emmet county in 
the summer of 1904, and it was abundant and in full song on the Beaver 
Islands, Lake Michigan, in July of the same year. S. E. White states that 
it is an abundant summer resident on Mackinac Island, Lake Huron, 
and Dr. W. H. Dunham took a nest and three eggs near Spencer, Kalkaska 
county June 5, 1906, but does not consider it common in that vicinity. 
Throughout the Upper Peninsula it appears to be a common nester, 
although Mr. E. E. Brewster of Iron Mountain, Dickinson county, states 
that he has never found it nesting there, and does not think it is a summer 
resident. Mr. Ed Van Winkle of Vans Harbor, Delta county, states that 
it breeds there, and we have numerous reports of its nesting in Marquette 
county, Alger county, Chippewa county, and Mackinac county. Mr. 
T. B. Wyman found a nest and four fresh eggs at Negaunee, Marquette 
county, July 7, 1905, and Mr. E. O. Doolittle found nests with eggs from 
June 13 to 24, 1905 in Baraga and Marquette counties. The occurrence 
of fresh eggs on July 7 makes it likely that the species occasionally rears 
a second brood. 
In habits the Hermit Thrush is much like the Olive-back, and although 
during migration they are by no means shy, during the nesting season 
they are extremely wary and suspicious, and it is difficult to approach 
within gun shot while they are singing. The Hermit Thrush obtains 
most of its food from the ground and its nest is invariably placed upon 
the ground or close to it, but when singing it often selects a perch thirty 
to fifty feet high and sings for an hour at a time from this point. In 
common with several of its relatives the Hermit has the habit of lifting 
the tail suddenly and allowing it to sink slowly down again, to be quickly 
lifted an instant later, this being repeated over and over again, while the 
bird utters a low chuck from time to time, which is rather characteristic 
although not widely different from that used by the Olive-back. 
The song has been so often described that most readers are familiar 
with it. Mr. Burroughs says: ‘It is to me the finest sound in nature.” 
Spencer Trotter says: ‘The Hermit’s song appealed to me as a sustained 
melody throughout; as though the musician had the ear to appreciate 
as well as the power to express. * * * The alarm note has a catbird 
quality about it, lower pitched and less metallic than that of the Olive- 
backed Thrush” (Auk. XXI, 63-64). Bicknell says: ‘The call-note 
of the Hermit Thrush is very different from that of any other species of 
its group which occurs with us. It is a low chuck, suggestive of the note 
of a distant blackbird (Auk, 1, 131). Dr. Coues says of the song “The 
weird associations of the spot where the Hermit triumphs, the mystery 
inseparable from the voice of an unseen musician, conspire to heighten 
the effect of the sweet, silvery, bell-like notes, which, beginning soft, low 
and tinkling, rise higher and higher to end abruptly with a clear, ringing 
intonation. It is the reverse of the lay of the Wood Thrush, which swells 
at once into powerful and sustained effort, then gradually dies away, 
as though the bird were receding from us.” 
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