390 HERMIT THRUSH. 
to the extremity ; the next has less of the white at the tip; these grad- 
ually lengthen to the four middle ones, which are wholly dark slate ; 
all-of them taper towards the points, the two middle ones most so. 
The female is an inch shorter, and is otherwise only distinguished 
by the less brilliancy of her color; she also wants the rich silky blue 
on the crown, and much of the splendor of the neck; the tail is also 
somewhat shorter, and the white, with which it is marked, less pure.* 
——_—_—»———_ 
HERMIT THRUSH. —TURDUS SOLITARIUS.— Fie. 179. 
Little Thrush, Catesby, i. 31. — Edwards, 296. — Brown Thrush, Arct. Zool. 337. 
: ‘No. 199. — Peale’s Museum, No. 3542. 
TURDUS SOLITARIUS, — Wutso0n.t 
Turdus minor, Bonap. Synop. p. 75. — The Hermit Thrush, Aud, Orn. Biog. i. p. 
‘ 303, pl. 58, male and fenale. 
Tue dark solitary cane and myrtle swamps of the southern states 
are the favorite native haunts of this silent and recluse species; and 
the more deep and gloomy these are, the more certain we are to meet 
with this bird flitting among them. This is the species mentioned in 
a former part of this work, while treating of the Wood Thrush, as 
having been figured and described, more than fifty years ago, by Ed- 
wards, from a. dried.specimen sent him by my friend Mr. William 
Bartram, under the supposition that it was the Wood Thrush, (T'urdus 
melodus.) It is, however, considerably less, very differently marked, 
and altogether destitute of the clear voice and rousical powers of that 
charming minstrel. It also differs, in remaining in the southern states 
during the whole year; whereas the Wood Thrush does not winter 
even In Georgia; nor arrives within the southern boundary of that 
state until some time in April. 
The Hermit Thrush is rarely seen in Pennsylvania, unless for a few 
weeks in spring, and late in the fall, long after the Wood Thrush has 
left us, and when scarcely a summer bird remains in the woods. In 
both seasons it is mute, naving only, in spring, an occasional squeak, 
* Tn addition to their history by Wilson, Audubon mentions, that though regu- 
larly migrating in numbers, they are never in such vast extent as the Passenger 
Pigeon, from two hundred and fifty to three hundred being considered a large flock. 
He also mentions them differing in another more important particular — the manner 
of roosting. They prefer sitting among the long grass of abandoned fields, at the 
foot of the dry stalks of maize, and only occasionally resort to the dead foliage of 
trees, or the different species of evergreens. They do hot sit near each other, but 
are dispersed over the fieldy whereas the Passenger Pigeon roosts in compact 
masses, on limbs -of trees. In every respect, they run more into the Ground 
Doves, or Bronze-winged Pigeons, which s:milarity some parts of the plumage will 
strengthen. — Ep. : ' 
t Bonaparte has wished to restore Gmelin’s old name of minor to this bird, which 
Wilson had thought in some manner erroneous, on account of solitarius being pre- 
occupied by another species. That, however, will rank in the genus Petrocincla ; 
ae r. Swaingon has since described a small species under the name of minor. 
— ED. 
